%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1321369638087063900%% Please do not replace or remove either without starting a new thread.%%[[quoteright:325:[[VideoGame/SuperMario64 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/urban-legend-of-zelda_6319.png]]]][[caption-width-right:325:A hidden clue! I think the inscription says, "L is real 2401." Or maybe [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead "Paul is dead."]]]]

->''"We added a shitload of secrets into this thing. Seriously. You thought Hidden Palace was bad? This thing is gonna be like goddamn JFK."''-->-- '''Anonymous Creator/SonicTeam Member''', ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2SpecialEdition''

Every popular game has a rumor around it that elevates into near urban legend, and perhaps due to an oversight or hanging plot thread it seems ''just'' plausible. It's not hard to believe them, since the games often have ''real'' secrets and glitches that are [[RealityIsUnrealistic so bizarre that they sound made-up]] (such as the ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' and ''Series/{{Space Sheriff|Gavan}}'' parodies [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOxbkuD-JZI you can unlock]] in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'', or the fact that Iggy Koopa's fireballs in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' will turn into glitchy blobs if you slide into them). Yet no matter how much evidence is eventually against it, the rumor just won't die.

A common source of these is [[AprilFoolsDay April Fools]] issues of popular gaming magazines. After all, if it's in print, it must be true! ... Not quite. Other sources include mistranslated lines, aspects of the game being DummiedOut, and {{Missing Secret}}s.

A frequent motif in such rumors is that of a secret supposedly unlocked by performing some action in the game for hours on end, pulling off a difficult feat several times in a row, or just doing something complicated ''exactly'' the right way--which makes the rumor harder to verify and contributes to its longevity.

Sometimes, the game's creators will include a character or a feature in the sequel because of these rumors. For instance, when a cameo appearance of Cut Man in ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'' led to a rumor that he was in the game as a secret boss, Capcom added him as a secret boss in the Saturn port of ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan8 8]]'' (he also appears as a secret boss in ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'', probably an [[FandomNod in-joke reference]] to this). See AscendedMeme and AscendedFanon.

Occasionally, this will reach the point where the rumors take on a life of their own. This can culminate in the creation of a "FWAK", a parody {{walkthrough}} containing intentionally fake "secrets." The most infamous of these is undoubtedly [[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.games.final-fantasy/browse_thread/thread/4ade399b277a4111/fba20b93e706eddd?lnk=st Eggnog's hidden character FWAK]] for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. FWAK stands for "'''F'''alse '''W'''isdom '''a'''nd '''K'''nowledge."

It's worth noting that the explosion of Internet access has allowed for both rapid debunking and rapid propagation of such digital legends, resulting in people being no better or worse informed about them than before.

[[IThoughtItMeant Please do not confuse this trope]] for an UrbanFantasy edition of ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXonIgnSWIo Even if it does]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCvpM6e9XIQ&t=16s or does not]] [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter exist]].

As an aside, this trope's name could be a "Before & After" puzzle on ''Series/WheelOfFortune''.

Compare WildMassGuessing and FandomBerserkButton. If the rumour is about something a creator allegedly said in an interview or fluff, see GodNeverSaidThat. For more information, check out [[http://www.gametrailers.com/game/pop-fiction/13123 Pop Fiction,]] an excellent ''Series/MythBusters''-type show on this very subject, or [[http://didyouknowgaming.com/ Did You Know Gaming?]], which features gaming Urban Legends and Easter Eggs.

----!!Video Game Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:The Legend Of Zelda (TropeNamer)]]* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has an incredible number of such rumors. They include:** That you could obtain the Triforce in the game. It did appear in screenshots from early development stages (which is likely how this rumor started), but the final game did not include it as an obtainable item. This didn't stop people from looking for it anyway.** That you could catch a glimpse of (but not obtain) the Triforce by playing a song called the "Overture of Sages" just prior to pulling out the Master Sword. This was a (comparatively) more convincing theory, and there were even alleged screenshots of how to do it. Naturally, the person who started the rumor never detailed how to actually learn the song to begin with. Learn the story [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/websurfin/ariana.html here]].** That you can beat the Marathon Man. The fact of the matter is: you can't.[[note]]And it's easy to prove, too; if it were true, you could find out what happens in the game's [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/n64/197771-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time/faqs/20240 text dump.]][[/note]] That didn't stop people from trying, though, leading to the creative solution (shown in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCtAUrZbUk this hacked video]]) of going back in time and waiting seven in-game years. The game designers apparently had no idea what to do if you won, so he always beats you by exactly one second. Even if you use a cheat to finish in zero seconds, his time is "00:0/". The real point of the race ended up just being to beat your best time.** That you could re-enter the Great Deku Tree as Adult Link, where you could find a hammer which could break the ice that had trapped the Zoras. It is possible to enter the Deku Tree as an adult with cheat devices, and the place is intact, but there's nothing new to see.** That there was a hidden dungeon known as the "Desert Pyramid" in the Haunted Wastelands which, for whatever reason, contained the Triforce. You can reveal the "pyramid" by playing the Song of Storms in a specific location with the right orientation; the lightning flashes illuminate a triangular silhouette on the horizon, and thus the rumor writes itself. Reaching the silhouette without cheats is impossible thanks to the desert's [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence swirling sands]], but close examination reveals [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/interactive2/pyramidhw2.jpg a simple rock with a particularly pointy top.]] There ''is'' a Desert Pyramid dungeon in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures'', which may be a reference to this rumor.** That there was a nude code! Dan Owsen started this one on his "Ask Dan" column on Nintendo's website, posting a ridiculously long code sequence purporting to render characters naked -- but only Malon, Talon, and Ingo. So many people used the "code" and complained to Owsen when it didn't work that he had to apologize in the column.** That you could obtain an M16 by using a certain item (usually a bomb or the hammer) in a specific spot in Kakariko Village during or after the shadow attack once you beat the Water Temple.** That you could totally get a gender-bending tunic that would result in a female Link. That one was one site's April Fool's joke; they thought it wasn't convincing, but they didn't bank on people believing it because technically, [[ViewerGenderConfusion Sheik held precedent]].** That there was a "Sky Temple." This one arose out of the fact that the Sage of Light, the first Sage you meet, was never trapped in his temple like the others. One memorable story of how to get there was to use a GameShark to prevent night from changing into day and kill hundreds of Stalchildren in Hyrule Fields, causing (supposedly) a gigantic skeleton to approach you from the distance, [[FakeUltimateMook who could be killed with a single hit]]. The skeleton's skull was then supposed to provide a telepad to the Sky Temple, which was also rumored to contain the Triforce.[[note]]The giant, easily killed Stalchildren do exist, though, but just as a glitch. Stalchildren grow larger as the night goes on. When you prevent night from ending, you remove the upper bound to how big they get.[[/note]]** That you can reach the DummiedOut Unicorn Fountain, rumored to be accessible through an underwater door in Zora's Domain. A pathway ''does'' exist down there, but it just leads to an underwater dead end with a black wall -- and you don't just make a hard-to-get-to space like ''that'' for no reason, do you?** That you could replace your fire arrows with "phantom arrows." This supposedly required you to use the potion from the Biggoron Sword quest on the ghost in the desert.** That there was an ''extremely'' rare chance of encountering a strange pig-like enemy during the graveyard race againts Dampe. Known as the "El Puerco" rumor, it circulated around GameFAQs for quite a while. General consensus now is that the initial "sighting", if not a complete fabrication, was the result of a player encountering a very rare, very odd glitch with the [=ReDead=] enemy's model.** That you could get a "Gold Tunic," which would combine the effects of the Goron and Zora Tunics and was related to the Gold Skulltula Tokens. The closest we got to that one was a recolor for Link in ''[[SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''.* Electronic Gaming Monthly, prolific prankster on April Fool's Day, suckered in a lot of people with its claim of a realistic remake of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' rendered with the graphical engine of ''Twilight Princess''. They claimed it was available with a ''Twilight Princess'' pre-order and photoshopped Link fighting a bird enemy in ''Twilight Princess'' style in an area clearly from ''Wind Waker''. People asked local retailers if the pre-order offer was real, and the May issue included letters mocking those who were fooled.* Rumors also involve whole games that don't exist, including:** A hoax known as ''Valley of the Flood'', starring a FakeUltimateHero version of Link. An interview about it can be seen [[http://www.gemakei.com/forums/index.php?topic=13375.0 here]]).** A new futuristic ''Zelda'' game with Epona as a motorcycle. While this was another April Fool's joke, ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' does include Link as a DLC character, complete with an Epona-themed motorcycle.** A half-finished prototype of an unreleased [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] game called ''The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Saga''. This was a hoax; it was put up for auction on eBay in 2005, and someone paid $3000 for what turned out to be an empty cartridge.* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has its own set of rumors, including:** That you could get into Fado's house. While it's impossible, and the door is always locked, this one was very popular on GameFAQs (although they were mostly joke topics).** That you could find the hidden "Beta forest", the name for a wide open expanse of trees seen in the game's first two trailers. Fans were excited about a departure from the usual cave-system-disguised-by-occasional-trees that passes as a forest in the ''Zelda'' games, but the Beta forest isn't in the finished product. Most videos [[BlatantLies "proving"]] its existence are usually just exhibitions of random glitches.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Final Fantasy]]* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has the following rumors:** That Golbez can join your party. While he totally does in ''The After Years'', rumors about the original game long abounded.** That the twin characters Palom and Porom were retrievable even after [[spoiler:they commit their HeroicSacrifice and turn to stone]] through a special quest accessible only at that moment. They do get better anyway (without your assistance), but they don't rejoin you. The game designers didn't help matters by allowing you to attempt to use any item in your inventory on the now-frozen pair, implying that there was something you could do to reverse the process. This rumor would also get intertwined with the very real DevelopersRoom EasterEgg from the Japanese version and a Japanese-only item that would remove the "Stone" status effect (in actual fact, using it on the twins would give you a message saying that [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it wouldn't work for plot reasons]]), and thus claimed that the twins could only be cured in the Japanese version. One walkthrough was so convinced that it included this rumor fact.** That Dark Matter could do something useful. You could steal it from the final boss in the Japanese version of the game; Americans labored under the rumor that you needed to do this to beat the boss and that this requirement was removed from the US version to make it easier. When FFIV was brought to the US unedited for newer systems, Dark Matter turned out to have no effect, although the NintendoDS version makes it useful in fighting a BonusBoss later.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has a myth about a secret job class. It involves a rock shaped like a human face you encounter on the submarine; various explanations involved beating the game first or landing a certain number of steps away from it. It ''does'' work, though, in the GBA remake, where you can get three new job classes as soon as you access it and a fourth after beating the game and a difficult BonusBoss.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has the following rumors:** That you can resurrect [[spoiler:General Leo after Kefka kills him]]. It ''is'' possible, but only through a glitch that wasn't discovered until much later, so many of the rumors surrounding this are still false. Details are in Part 12 of [[http://lparchive.org/Breaking-Final-Fantasy-VI/ this LP.]] The {{GBA}} port of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' caused these rumors to briefly resurface -- the claim was that a newly-added side quest allows you not only to [[spoiler:bring back Leo]], but also to let him permanently join your party. The same was also claimed of [[spoiler:Emperor Gestahl]].** That you could get an alternate character ending if you got every single one of Shadow's dream sequences.** That there's an arcane trick to preventing Shadow from leaving after battles during segments where he can. Explanations involved doing the "three scenarios" segment in a particular order, changing the party order, or avoiding making money from battles. There are tricks to stop him running, but they're not nearly so arcane; they mostly rely on Shadow not being alive and present at the end of battles (knock him out, make him run, etc.) Beyond that, it's 100% random.** That you can recruit a new Imp character, which allows you to avoid setting the Imp condition on an existing character. People pointed to the presence of [[StandardStatusEffects Imp-specific]] equipment, the ability to learn Gau's Rage ability, the Imp Robot joke auction in Jidoor, and a photo (easily faked) of an Imp casting black magic as proof.** That you can turn a character into an unstoppable new Imp character. This required getting all the Imp-specific armor, equipping it to a character, using a Rename Card to rename it "KAPPA", and casting Imp on them. It doesn't work, although it does make your existing character a force to be reckoned with (and the rename does nothing). This rumor arose out of a notorious FAQ with an enormous list of characters you could supposedly obtain, including those from other games entirely, most of which were crazy (and not even technologically feasible).** That you can buy the 1/1200-scale airship model and Imp Robot at the auction house. The gentleman there will always outbid you [[WhammyBid severely]], even going above your Gil {{Cap}}.** That you could find and fight a ninth dragon. This came from an NPC mentioning a "terrible dragon" living near the Veldt Cave -- it turned out to be a mistranslation from the Japanese line, which referred to a [[DinosaursAreDragons dinosaur]] and probably references the many dinosaur enemies there. It was popular around the same time as the resurrection [[spoiler:of General Leo]] rumor, so the two were often linked.*** A different dragon rumor, though, got a lot more traction: if, by some obscure method, you re-fought the Eight Dragons again in sequence, you could face off with a superboss called "Czar Dragon". This one has merit to it -- the game's code ''does'' have a Czar Dragon, with its own stats, sprite, and even dialogue; you can also find evidence that the Eight Dragons could be re-fought. The common myth about getting there (petrifying the Blue Dragon) turned out to be bunk, though. The GBA UpdatedRerelease ''does'' let you re-fight the Eight Dragons, after which you fight Kaiser Dragon, which is pretty much the same thing.[[note]]"Kaiser" and "Czar" are, respectively, the German and Russian variants of the title Caesar, after all.[[/note]]** That Gogo is actually General Leo, Emperor Gestahl, or a send-up of the politician Adlai Stevenson (the rumor including fake quotes from his works). The English release ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' put a stop to that by including him as a simple (and obvious) cameo.** That there are hidden Espers who would grant various absurd and powerful spells if you could find them. They arose out of the presence of two empty spaces in the complete Magicite menu. They're there for a reason, though; one was vacated by the Odin Esper when it evolved into Raiden ([[LostForever destroying]] the original in the process), and the other is there to let you remove an Esper from a character. But this only encouraged rumors, fueling speculation that you could get Raiden without losing Odin. A popular one involved killing the dragon in the underground castle using [[UselessUsefulSpell Break]]; possessing all the Espers (including Odin and Raiden) was another way of unlocking the [[BonusBoss Czar Dragon]] battle. The GBA UpdatedRerelease includes ''four'' new Espers, though.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has the following rumors:** That you can revive Aerith/Aeris. It's one of the most dramatic and [[PlayerPunch shocking]] moments in video game history, so this naturally has an abundance of possible explanations. The game's producers categorically deny that there's a way to revive her, claiming that it would ruin the dramatic impact of her death. And for proof, if you use a save game editor to reinsert her into your party, the game will crash or preemptively remove her at various points. But that didn't stop the tide of rumors, which included:*** The use of the relatively-useless "Underwater" materia, which had no point in the Japanese version and only removed a time limit during an optional boss fight in the other releases. It was said that if the materia AP was maxed (something in itself that would take months of level grinding), you could travel underwater in the Forbidden City where she bit it and bring her back to life. It turns out that maxing the AP of the materia just set it back to zero.*** Another materia, reachable after she dies, which says, "You hear voices" upon activating, making it seem like she did special things with the White materia.*** Being very nice to her in all of your [[DialogueTree dialogue options]] while being downright [[KickTheDog cruel]] to Tifa. It was rumored that doing so would [[DieForOurShip make Tifa die instead]] during the infamous scene.** That you can get infinite [[GlobalCurrency Gil]]. This cheat made the rounds not only on the Internet, but in magazines and printed video game hint books, over and over again, despite the fact that the method itself was insanely, obscurely stupid. It revolved around a nonexistent item (a "time card") and nonexistent town ("Manchuria"). And it's trivially easy to have [[MoneyForNothing more cash than you can ever spend]]; either abuse the duplication trick or find a mastered All materia (which most people will have lying around somewhere around Disc 2), and start selling!** That you can revive Zack. While not as popular as Aerith-resurrection rumors, they're just as varied. The theories include:*** That the sick Sephiroth clone you find living in a sewer pipe in Midgar is Zack, and that Aerith's mention of "Sorry, I'm too weak to heal him" means that you have to buff her up to ungodly levels and talk to him again. Given that the area is only accessible (with Aerith, anyway) for a brief period in which there are only fairly weak enemies to level-build on, one can only imagine the wasted hours and snapped controllers sacrificed to ''this'' rumor.*** That you can use the 1/35 SOLDIER, Super Sweeper, and Masamune Blade (which are useless items you can win from the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer) on the ruined reactor in Gongaga. This one was printed in an issue of the UK's Powerstation magazine. *** That it required an item that could only be obtained by fighting the infinite {{Mook}}s at the end of the subway tunnel when heading to the second mako reactor for a solid hour.** That you could unlock Cloud's sister Gale. The explanation of this one was very detailed and even seemed plausible until the very end, where her second Fourth Level Limit Break was "beating you to a pulp for believing such a stupid rumor." Naturally, this deterred no one. And a female Cloud (as opposed to just a crossdressing one) is more HilariousInHindsight at this point than anything, considering Square's basically admitted that Lightning from VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII is meant to mirror Cloud (she can even use some of his equipment as a [[{{DLC}} preorder bonus]]).** That you could find a White Chocobo, which could travel anywhere the Gold Chocobo could ''plus'' underwater. This often tied into other rumors, because doing so was said to lead you to the White materia, Aerith's body, or another WEAPON.** Due to the existence of Ruby and Emerald, fans began to speculate that there were possibly more WEAPONS lurking around the world map. The most ridiculous of these was Cheese WEAPON, which would presumably be fought in space. It was obviously a hoax, but some people still believed it. Eventually, someone created a [[http://web.axelero.hu/szegogab/cheeseweapon.jpg badly photoshopped image of the enemy in question.]]* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has a popular fan theory that [[FutureMeScaresMe Ultimecia was Rinoa in the future]] and her Griever GF was Squall (somehow). Square debunked it in the [[WordOfGod Ultimania Guides]]. It's based mostly on Rinoa's private talk with Squall aboard the Ragnarok on disc 3 where she [[NotSoDifferent announces Ultimecia's goals as her own]]. While it's intended to be romantic, the way she carries on about making one moment last forever makes it easy to see where the rumor came from:-->''I don't want the future. I want the present to stand still. I just want to stay here with you.''** Other "justifications" from this rumor come from the name of the GF Ultimecia summons being the same as what the player [[HelloInsertNameHere named Rinoa's copy of Squall's Griever ring]], but Ultimecia just got the name from reading Squall's mind.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' has the following rumors:** That you can get an alternate ending by beating the entire game in twelve hours. It is true that you can get [[InfinityPlusOneSword Excalibur II.]] by reaching the final ''dungeon'' in twelve hours, but this one stretched credibility. Supposedly, the alternate ending involved a twenty-five year old Eiko killing Garnet and trapping Zidane in a crystal.** That if you name Garnet "Pleb", Steiner will give Vivi the Octagon Rod, a late-game weapon, [[GameBreaker much earlier than usual]]. There's no way to get the Octagon Rod until the third disc.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pokémon]]* There's generally one Pokémon in each set of games that can't be captured during regular gameplay (requiring a limited-edition promotional item or {{Gameshark}} to get). The rumors revolve around a hidden point and/or series of actions to take that allows you to get it.** The biggest proliferation happened with the first generation, which was released before sites like GameFAQs hit it big and enough fans were [[ViewersAreGeniuses talented enough to dissect the game code]]. There were probably 73 different ways claimed to get a Mew. There actually ''is'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhR3heOmZuA a working glitch to get Mew]], but it was discovered in 2003, ''five years'' after the game's North American release, after most of the rumors had died down. In any event, the contemporary [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire third generation]] ''Pokémon'' games couldn't even use a first-gen Mew due to compatability limitations.** But the Generation III (''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', and ''Emerald'') games are not exempt either. There is a persistent rumor that when the shuttle launch count in the Mossdeep City reaches a certain number (50 and 99 were two of the fairly popular numbers), you will be able to hitch a ride on one of the rockets. This will take you into space, where you can catch Deoxys or Jirachi. (In a fit of AscendedFanon, you ''can'' fly into space like this in ''VideoGame/PokemonOmegaRubyAndAlphaSapphire'', but on Rayquaza rather than the rocket.) There's also an obscure urban legend about Celebi having a one in about two hundred million chance of appearing on a certain route in pre-order copies of the game, though due to the sheer improbability this one didn't circulate much.* While this has been the case since the first sequels were announced, these days ''Pokémon'' rumors focus more on the next generation of games rather than the current one -- even before they're released. You've got [[http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=195801 fake magazine scans]] showing Pokémon that are supposed to (but obviously don't) exist in the next game, a [[http://nintendo3dsdaily.com/nintendo3dsnews/japanese-twitter-users-fooled-by-fake-pikachu-evolution-pokemon-x-and-y-related/ fake Pikachu evolution]] that spread like wildfire across various Japanese Website/{{Twitter}} feeds and tons and tons of lists of rumoured things supposedly in the next ''Pokémon'' game and told to the author by their friend/relative/someone who works on the development team. * The original games, ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', have so many legitimate secrets and glitches that it was inevitable that this trope would come into play. Many of them had some grain of truth that are only becoming obvious now.** The most famous of them was [[TheMissingno the legitimate Missingno. glitch]], which seemed [[RealityIsUnrealistic as insane and arbitrary as any of the rumors]] -- unless you were versed in programming, because it was ''real''. If you talked to a seemingly irrelevant tutorial NPC in Viridian City and then Surfed along a specific beach in Cinnabar Island, you could make weird Pokemon show up, like Golbat and Snorlax over the level cap of 100, and glitched "Pokémon" called Missingno. and 'M.[[note]]There are at least twelve such glitched Pokémon, some of which are only available through {{Gameshark}}, as chronicled by [[http://www.glitchcity.info/ Glitch City Laboratories]]. The best is [=LM4=], which is a blur of dots that will, at level 18, evolve three times back-to-back: First into Clefairy, then into Clefairy ''again'', and then into Nidoking.[[/note]] They were actually placeholder values in the game, and so catching them made even weirder stuff happen - in-battle graphics would be screwy, the Hall of Fame would be permanently glitched, and if you put it in a PC box you might not be able to ever retrieve it (depending on your name). Missingno. got so popular for another reason, however. The sixth item in your inventory would be cloned to 128 after encountering it or 255 after capturing it. This means with a little planning, you can create infinite numbers of rare and powerful items like Master Balls and Rare Candies, which makes the game [[GameBreaker laughably easy]].\\But this isn't about what's true; it's about what's ''not'' true, and Missingno. spurred the creation of many myths of its own, including that it was meant to be in the game, acting as the proverbial joker in the deck. Some claimed that if it were caught, it would erase your other Pokémon or even your saved games if certains condition were met. It was supposedly named "Missingno." because your files are missing now.[[note]]It actually stands for "missing number"; it's a placeholder value and a reference to the Japanese superstition that certain numbers are unlucky due to their [[FourIsDeath association with death]].[[/note]]*** Missingno. was also a ''complete'' UrbanLegendOfZelda in most European countries, where the versions finally released there patched some of the glitches, including the ones that led to Missingno. Unfortunately for those European gamers, gaming publications (largely borrowing and translating from North America) didn't get the memo and left in the steps to get there, which now did nothing. The glitches that remained didn't help matters there.** That you could break the level 100 {{Cap}} and buff a Pokémon all the way up to level 999 by trading it through all released translations of the game and then back to its original trainer. This arose out of the manuals for the European versions suggesting that [[ForbiddenFruit players avoid]] trading Pokémon between versions of the game in different languages in order to preserve the data integrity of the save file.** That there's something hidden in a truck in a secret harbor in Vermilion City. You can only access it by surfing around the S.S. Anne, which usually leaves never to return long before you get the Surf HM. Clever players avoided this, either by simply trading for the Cut HM from another game (avoiding the need to board the ship entirely), or by deliberately losing in battle (which automatically takes you to the last-visited Pokémon Center), which would trick the boat into remaining in harbor. While the truck contained no secrets, it became incredible fodder for rumors. Neither Nintendo nor Game Freak have ever officially explained its presence. That's not so say that the developers were above referencing it once the rumors took off; they hid a Lava Cookie there for the GBA [[VideoGameRemake remakes]], and an NPC references it in a song lyric in ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'':-->''There's no Pokémon under a truck, maybe you'll just find a Muk.''** That you could get the S.S. Anne to come back after it left. An NPC did claim that the ship would return in a year, but the original games had no way of telling the time beyond hours played.** That you could get Shellder to lose into its shell and evolve into Gastly. This mostly followed from naďveté when people were just getting into ''Pokémon''; the instruction manuals had a single empty spot between Shellder and Gastly in the Pokédex, which turned out just to be Cloyster.** Of secret evolutions, of which there were several.*** One of the most famous was another April Fool's joke gone wrong, courtesy of ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'', claiming that Dragonite could evolve into [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]] with a certain trick.*** A more insane April Fool's joke (courtesy of the official website of Creator/{{Nintendo}} of America itself) was that Lickitung would evolve into Luigi if you fed it a Rare Candy while holding your GameBoy ''upside down''. It was particularly nonsensical because it required Lickitung to be caught in ''Blue'' in a specific type of Poké Ball; the games never kept track of this until ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', and you can only obtain Lickitung in ''Blue'' through trade anyway. The sprite they showed for Luigi was also clearly just grayscaled artwork from the original ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', much higher-quality than the game's real sprites. GameFreak may have referenced this rumor as well when in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY the sixth generation]], we were introduced to Inkay, a Pokémon that indeed ''does'' evolve when you hold your console upside-down.*** That you could increase the chance of catching a Pokémon by [[http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=8 mashing buttons]] in a specific way. This is another claim from the official Nintendo website. It's a common rumor throughout the generations, and although it certainly ''[[PlaceboEffect feels]]'' effective, it ''usually'' doesn't work. The random number generator ''can'' be [[http://tasvideos.org/PokemonTricks.html#LuckManipulation manipulated slightly through button inputs]], but this requires frame-perfect timing, so it's largely left to the speedrunners.*** Other rumors involved evolving Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise again into Sapusaur, Charcolt, and Rainer respectively. The methods of doing this varied from using the mythical "Mist Stone" on them to slowing down their evolutionary sequences. One Pokémon FAQ site, asked "how do i get a charcolot?", responded with "[[SchmuckBait Smash your game into exactly 1000 pieces and toss it in the trash. When you go to the city dump to retrieve it, it will be repaired and you will have charcolot.]]" Ironically, Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise would be able to [[SuperMode Mega Evolve]] starting in Generation 6.** That there's something behind Bill's house. You can see a path that continues north beyond it, but you can't access it. It was commonly known as "Bill's Secret Garden" and was said to contain extremely rare Pokémon, usually Mew, Togepi, or [[GannonBanned Pikablu]]. Others claimed it contained the starters Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur there -- they can't be caught anywhere else in the game (and as breeding didn't exist back then, most people wouldn't want to trade their starters just to complete the Pokédex). If you use a GameShark to walk through walls, you can access it, but it's a patch the height of your character and as wide as Bill's house with nothing in it.*** In another fit of AscendedFanon, there ''is'' a "secret garden" area in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', accessible only after completing the entire Pokédex (bar Legendaries) and containing many rare and unique Pokémon, including a shiny Haxorus.** That there's something in the Hall of Fame room, where Professor Oak records your victory over the Elite Four at the end of the game. It's wide enough to seem to stretch past the screen borders, but you can't explore it. Legend has it that if you beat the Elite Four a ridiculous number of times, complete the Pokčdex, and fulfill various other equally insane conditions, Professor Oak will snap during the cutscene, yell "I'm sick of this!", and leave you there to explore the room, which was alleged to contain [[GannonBanned Mewthree]]. Like with Bill's Secret Garden, Gameshark has shown there's nothing there.** That there are other hidden Pokémon beyond the 151 actually in the game. They were often referred to as "Pokégods", and many of the rumors surrounding them involved talking to various [=NPCs=] a certain number of times to get them to say something different.[[note]]The only time this does ''anything'' in the original games is where the Safari Zone gatekeeper will let you in for free if you talk to him enough. The ability to do this probably sparked rumors that it could be done elswhere.[[/note]]*** "Pikablu" is actually Marill, from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' -- it was a real Pokémon, but from the ''next'' generation of games under development in Japan (and thus far from anybody's minds during the US Pokécraze). The association with Pikachu is just a visual resemblance, but that one glimpse set the rumor mill in motion.*** ''Red'' and ''Blue'' had different Eevee evolutions for nearly all the elemental stones (Fire, Water, and Thunder), but none for the Leaf or Moon Stones. Rumors abounded of how you could get a new evolution through one of the new stones. One of the rumors of a "Moon" type evolution bore itself out through the Dark-type Umbreon, introduced in Generation II -- but it evolved via Happiness at night and not via Moon Stone. The Grass-type Leafeon wouldn't show up until Gen IV (and it evolved by leveling up an Eevee in a particular area, rather than with a Leaf Stone -- this kept everything consistent in-universe).*** "Tricket" was a supposed secret Bug Pokémon; the story goes that if you go through the game exclusively with various Bug Pokémon, Professor Oak will acknowledge your love for bugs and give you Tricket as a reward. The sequence as described is impossible; the required Pokémon cannot learn Surf or Strength, necessary to get into and through Victory Road. ''Diamond & Pearl'' did introduce the cricket Pokémon Kricketot and Kricketune many years later, though.* Moving on to Generation II and ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', many of the rumors from there revolved around the differences between the two generations, including areas accessible in Gen I but not Gen II (such as the closed tunnel between Celadon City and Saffron City). The basic reason for this inaccessibility is that there was no room on the cartridge for ''everything'' from the Gen I games.** The remakes of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' had the extremely-persistent-even-after-debunked rumor that [[MemeticMutation Youngster Joey's "top-percentage" Rattata]] was in fact coded to have perfect Internal Values.* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' has the following rumors:** That there was a "swimming goggles" held item which increased accuracy and Special Attack and put non-Water Pokémon using it to sleep. It was a popular rumor in early release stages, with the main reaction that [[GameBreaker Starmie would be overpowered now.]] Said item did not exist, nor did anything even similar to it.** That [[spoiler:[[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Bianca]] was the Champion.]] This was easily {{Jossed}} just by finishing the game, and [[http://www.gamefreak.co.jp/blog/staff/?p=202 an interview on GameFreak's website]] indicates that the ending as-is was intended from the start. But some fans still insist that it's true, claiming it was DummiedOut (unlikely) or a misinterpretation of [[spoiler:her post-League team data as a Champion team]]. They also expected this to happen in the rumored third installment, which turned out to be two games (and in the end, [[spoiler:she's still not the champion.]]).** That you could drive a car. Actual cars did show up in the game, and one NPC talked about getting a driver's license, but you can't drive one yourself. It's a nice send-up of old Gen II rumors that you could ride your Pokémon rather than travel by bike, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMnwB6neGlY which becomes relevant in Pokémon X and Y.]]** That the previous player protagonist would appear in the titles. Some rumors said Hilda was canonically the hero while others said that Hilbert appeared if you played as Rosa and Hilda appeared if you played as Nate. Nevertheless, the character is nowhere to be seen. The speculation might have come from DummiedOut data that has Hilbert and Hilda in the [=PWT=].** That Arceus was hiding at the center of Abyssal Ruins. Persistent, but not true.** That Zekrom, Reshiram, and Victini can be shiny. Sadly, it's not true, but this hasn't stopped rumours that you can get a shiny one from Dragonspiral Tower. This probably arises out of the fact that they have shiny sprite data ([[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything so that the game doesn't crash if someone hacks them in]]). All three were available at Wi-Fi giveaways, which leads fans to believe their shiny versions may be available in such giveaways in the future; this is unlikely, though, as Zekrom and Reshiram are plot-critical legendaries in their respective versions.*** [[HilariousInHindsight It is now possible to obtain Shiny Reshiram/Zekrom]] as of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire''. The thing is, they follow the same Shiny requirements for normal wild Pokémon.* Shortly after the announcement of ''Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', someone noticed Nintendo registered a trademark for ''Delta Emerald'', sparking more rumors. However, this is probably a blanket trademark; Nintendo has been doing this kind of thing for a long time, and it says nothing about whether or not they intend on actually making the game. * ''VideoGame/HeyYouPikachu'' had a persistent rumor that saying "PlayStation" or "SEGA" would make Pikachu angry. Neither word is in the game's voice recognition library.** A 2005 April Fool's prank started a rumor of a remake for the NintendoDS that introduced a new Pokémon called "Korechu".* From ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'':** The game allows you to tip certain [=NPCs=] after conversations, your choice of nothing, 100, 500, or 1000 in-game currency. Allegedly, tipping 1000 all the time increases your chance of getting a Shiny Pokémon to appear in the wild. Given that the Nintendo3DS has yet to be successfully hacked, there's no way to tell if this is true or baseless yet.** There were rumors of a second Eeveelution - typically considered a dragon type - given that new Eeveelutions only come in pairs and that Nintendo hadn't promoted Glaceon or Leafeon. After a few weeks of release, and no one finding anything, the speculation died down.* When breeding was introduced, Nidoqueen could not breed for some unexplained reason. This sparked rumors that you could use one to breed an incredibly powerful Pokémon if some conditions were met. (Almost every version of this rumor claimed that you needed a Nidoking as the breeding partner, but couldn't agree on what the other conditions were.) Gamefreak itself has confirmed that this is false; Nidoqueen cannot breed, period. (At least not in the games; the anime is a different story, and they [[ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot break the rules of the games anyway]]).* ''Pokémon'' is a frequent subject of {{creepypasta}}, particularly original Red and Green versions.** [[http://www.rickey.org/?p=43703 Lavender Town]] is frequently the subject of these stories, particularly as it involves ghosts and creepy music and the like. [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Creepy_Cliches It's become such a cliché,]] the Creepypasta Wiki won't even accept them anymore.** One of these stories was about [[http://tinycartridge.com/post/866743831/super-creepy-pokemon-hack Pokemon Black]] (not to be confused with one-half of ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite''), a rumor about either a hacked rom of ''Pokémon Red/Blue'' or an actual bootleg cartridge (which would also be a hack) with a black sticker on the front. Basically, you start out with a "ghost" Pokémon you can never switch out of your main party. It has the sprite of what all ghost Pokémon look like before you get the Silph Scope which allows you to properly see them. All other Pokémon are too afraid of your ghost to attack it. The ghost's only attack is a Curse which instantly knocks out almost all other Pokémon in one hit. The victimon's defeat cry is played in a distorted way. The ball that it was in disappears from your opponent's roster (unless you fought a wild mon). Once you win, you get the previously unavailable option to use Curse on your opponent directly instead of just his Pokémon. Your opponent disappears from the screen and never returns. Some versions of this story have a grave of him appearing in his place. Usually you can talk to anyone you have defeated. The game continues as normal until you beat the Elite Four. It then flashes forward to you as an old man alone in a town. You return to either your home where you first start the game or Professor Oak's lab who gave you the ghost in the first place. You then see the image of every mon and trainer you cursed. Then your once loyal ghost attacks you directly. All you can do is the struggle command which shaves off a little of your life and does no damage to the ghost. Once your HP hits 1 or 0 the mon Curses you. The screen goes black and will not change. If you turn the game back on you will find your save file erased.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sonic]]* A rumor that ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'' had a secret ending spawned from a supposed quote from a SEGA employee and people's disappointment in the story's end. After the employee implied it was a misquote and the most obvious methods for unlocking a new ending yielded nothing, the rumor died down, being replaced with the rumors of a direct sequel to the game. * ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' had persistent rumors of new DLC stages, which turned out not to be true (barring the downloadable Casino Night Zone pinball minigame).* There were a few rumors about some bizarre, secret levels in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' and at the time what presumably was ''in'' these levels took on mythic proportions. Turns out the levels existed (kind of) but were DummiedOut mid-development. The urban legends arose from extant music and screenshots.* ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'' was subject of numerous rumours, including** That you could play as Knuckles in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic 1]]'', ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' and ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 2''. This was a relatively common magazine hoax as people were experimenting with connectivity between games. Australian magazine ''SEGA Megazone'' even claimed you could play as Tails in ''Sonic 1'' as well. These days, you can play as Knuckles in the smartphone-exclusive [[UpdatedRerelease 2013 Sonic 1 enhanced port.]]** That you could unlock something cool if you played all the blue sphere levels with ''Sonic 1'' connected. That "something" could have been playing as Hyper Tails, Metal Sonic, or Robotnik. There are over 100 ''million'' blue sphere levels -- assuming you could solve each one in two minutes, it would take roughly 400 years of solid play to finish them all. And nothing would happen anyway.** That Music/MichaelJackson [[PopStarComposer was involved in the game's soundtrack.]] Masato Nakamura of ''Dreams Come True'' composed the music for the first two games, but didn't return for the third due to a money issue. Fans knew this, they noticed the musical similarities some of the game's tracks had to some of Jackson's songs, they put two and two together, and the rumor wrote itself. This was [[IKnewIt confirmed]], but only over a ''decade'' later; Jackson was uncredited in the final game. Now the rumor is over whether or not he pulled out himself out of [[CreatorBacklash dissatisfaction with the finished product]] or whether Sega wanted to distance themselves from his scandals.* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', which gave us Chao, a breed-able RidiculouslyCuteCritter (and the craze that followed). Some rumors immediately after release, such as getting [[OlympusMons Chaos Chao]] or Knuckles' Air Necklace, turned out to be true, so more rumors followed, including the presence of any number of "secret unlockable items." The most infamous of these was the Chao Cookie, a RareCandy that would greatly boost your Chao's stats, and was only obtainable after collecting all of the emblems. There was also a rumor that collecting all the emblems allowed you to buy the "White Market", which was like the Black Market but included really rare Chao egg colors.* This kind of thing is so prevalent in the ''Sonic'' fandom that parodies have been made of the whole phenomenon:** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2SpecialEdition'' was a supposed UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' which never finished beta testing. Docfuture made a LetsPlay, purporting it to be the only surviving evidence of its existence. In fact, Docfuture made up the game specifically for the LP, building it from an anachronistic mishmash of ROM hacks and complete nonsense. He cited the real rumors surrounding ''Sonic 2'' as the inspiration for ''Sonic 2: Special Edition'', going so far as to make a fictitious TV ad in which one of the game's developers says that they "added a shitload of secrets into this thing".** [=UltraJMan=] made an LP of the "SonicTheHedgehog4 Beta Edition", featuring such things as Sonic riding a motorcycle, a boss fight with the Tails Doll, and an implied homosexual relationship between Sonic and Tails. The game was, of course, fanmade, but [=JMan=] spent the whole LP pretending that it was an official release.* From the mid-90s up until the release of ''[[SonicAdventure2 Sonic Adventure 2]]'', there floated around rumours of a game called "Sonic and Knuckles RPG"; it's noteworthy for ending up on a few "Coming Soon" lists around the time the first ''[[SonicAdventure Sonic Adventure]]'' was unveiled to the public, due to confusion over talking points (Adventure was said to contain RPG elements). When ''Sonic Adventure 2'' was announced, there was some speculation that it was the project that Sonic and Knuckles RPG evolved into. As of this writing, there exists no evidence of a scrapped or retooled Sonic RPG developed in that time frame. And while VideoGame/SonicBattle does have a few RPG elements in it, it's unlikely that the game was the rumored RPG game.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Super Mario]]* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', the original North American NES game, had the following rumors:** That you could access a secret World 10-1. That turned out to be false, but thanks to how Famicom games were programmed, you could later use a GameGenie to access a world labeled "10-1", a version of World 1-1 with botched graphics.** That there was a "no death" trick. Holding down the B button on the second controller supposedly turned Mario invincible. (Most people pulled this off by stepping on the second controller.) That one turned out to be false as well.** That something great will happen if you jump over a flagpole. It is possible to do in World 3-3 by using the scale lift at the end, but there's nothing past the flagpole except featureless, infinitely repeating landscape. Then you just have to wait for the timer to kill Mario, because the RatchetScrolling won't let you go back. Several levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'' did continue past the flagpole, but this often led to the infamous backwards {{Warp Zone}}s.** That if you beat the original NES game twice in a row, you could play ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. Chalk this up to a misunderstanding from the late 1980s; there is a NewGamePlus which makes the levels harder than usual, and people mistook that to be the game's actual sequel. It's not as if they understood that if [=SMB2=] had already been completed, [[RevenueEnhancingDevices Nintendo would just release it seperately]].** One of Jeff Rovin's ''How To Win At Nintendo Games'' books thanks a reader for describing the (real) Minus World trick, mentions a hidden "Chocolate Factory" level, and never explains how to access it.* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' had several urban legends, and the rise of Lunar Magic modding perpetuated many more. The rumors include:** That there is a secret "97th level". Ways to get there range from getting a string of Dragon Coins in the right order in certain levels or collecting all Dragon Coins in every level. No such level exists - there are 96 exits in total, including all secret levels. Shigeru Miyamoto even denied the existence of any such level in an early 2000's interview.** That completing the Special World a second and third time past the actual Autumn overworld change would change it to Winter and Spring. A hack does exist that changes the graphics to include snow and ice everywhere.** That there is a "Moon World", which you can supposedly access from the Star World or one of the Vanilla Dome levels. Many confuse it with the Star World itself, perpetuating the rumor. It was mentioned in an issue of the Australian Club Nintendo Magazine from the early 1990s, and you ''can'' visit the moon in other Mario games, including ''Super Mario Land 2'', ''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island''.** That you can find a "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Laser Suit]]" (and a congratulatory message from Nintendo) through a secret level. This one was perpetuated by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRpAoLiEdIc this]] [=YouTube=] video, uploaded in 2007, which looked very legitimate at the time. The uploader never responded to comments, and these days consensus believes that it's a well-made hack using Lunar Magic, but the video still fools the uninitiated.** A level described in the CreepyPasta [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYZpZrtomE "I HATE YOU"]]. It is supposedly accessed through a whirlpool after a secret exit from the Sunken GhostShip and featuring horrors such as blind Boos, bloody Banzai Bills, bloody graffiti such as "[[TitleDrop I hate you]]" and "WhyWontYouDie", bloody Thwomps, zombie Marios, and creepy Super Mushrooms, ending with Mario finding out that Luigi was working for Bowser and being forced to kill him. * ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' was rife with these rumors. They include:** That "L is real 2401" means something. An inscription on a fountain in the Big Boo courtyard (pictured above). It's illegible, but the rumors were that it read, "L is real 2401." "L" is commonly thought to refer to Luigi, and one theory is that "2401" references the North American release date of ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' (which was February 5, 2001).[[note]]This one is unlikely for several reasons. Luigi's role in the game is fairly minor, North America wasn't the first region to get the game, and the date format used in Japan would render the date as 01/02/04.[[/note]] In the end, the inscription was revealed to supposed to read [[VideoGame/MarioParty "Eternal Star"]]; the image simply lost a lot of resolution when it was imported into the game, and the remake never fixed it.** That you can get a Hammer Bro Mario. This was actually a joke referencing the Hammer Bro Suit from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', which was a secret at the time.** That you could ride and control Yoshi. A Yoshi model exists in the game, but there was no time to actually implement the feature.** That Luigi is a playable character. (After all, "L is real 2401"). This one, though, has a grain of truth to it; he was supposed to be in the game, and he was even seen in early beta screenshots in ''Magazine/NintendoPower'', but he was later removed. The rumor was perpetuated by Dan Owsen, who didn't even claim it was real; he just had great fun in conspiratorially refusing to answer questions about it. A [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspiciously vague denial]], you could say. Luigi would become a playable character in the [[UpdatedRerelease DS remake]], along with Wario...which led to a rumor that you could unlock [[EnsembleDarkhorse Waluigi]].** That there were other types of powerups, resulting in such features as Ninja Mario, [[ManOnFire Fire Mario]], and [[FanDisservice Naked Mario]].** That you could find Bowser's submarine after it vanishes.** That you could climb the Endless Stairs without 70 stars, either by trying for an obscenely long time or by jumping at exactly the right moment. It ''is'' possible, though, but it requires a glitch that rockets Mario up the stairs faster than the screen can scroll. (To be specific, you're being warped backwards constantly, so if you go fast enough, you'll rocket past the part that warps you back, and you'll make it to the top). Of course, it's very unlikely that the developers intended that. You can see it in action in [[http://tasvideos.org/1893M.html this zero-star speedrun.]]** That it was originally supposed to be a [[Main/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] game. This one derives from a ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' article where Shigeru Miyamoto claimed to be working on a 3D ''Mario'' game at the same time as the original ''VideoGame/StarFox'' game. It would have been called ''Super Mario FX'', which turned out to be the code name for the Super FX chip which would have powered the game (and did power ''VideoGame/StarFox'').* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', it was rumored that if you collect all the Shine Sprites, Mario can fight Waluigi, who is holding Luigi captive in a cage. Winning the battle makes Luigi a playable character.* One of the companions from ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' can be interacted with in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor''. This, on its own, started rumours that the other companions were there as well. This was before hackers discovered [[DummiedOut sprite sets]] for the lot of them.* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' had a very popular rumor of a ninth world hidden in the game, reached by such arcane methods as finding and using the "Golden Whistle". There is a "World 9" in the game, but it refers to the Warp Zone, which is hidden but hardly a mystery. This was likely fueled by a combination of not paying attention and the fact that the boxes of ''[=SMB3=]'' had screenshots of a level that didn't entirely match any of those appearing in the finished game. It's worth noting, though, that there are ''real'' hidden levels in the game, but they're [[DummiedOut (sometimes unfinished) prototypes only playable via a hack or cheat device]].* ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'' had "Purple Yoshi," a ninth Yoshi color. Allegedly, you unlocked it by collecting every single coin from every single level, from the ones buried in the ground to the ones only found by using a Super Happy Fruit. Some unofficial hint manuals even printed the rumor. The only hidden Yoshi colors are white and black, but the game did have a purple and brown Yoshi in the beta phase; they never made the final product.* In any game where Luigi is not playable, there will be rumors of how to unlock him. But in games where Luigi is the main character and ''Mario'' is not playable, the situation is reversed; this includes games like ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' and ''VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU''. Interestingly enough, ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' includes a DummiedOut Mario model, fit to Luigi's structure with a lot of his animations. (Going by the filename, it was probably a scrapped boss.)* Ashley from ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' is usually stated as being eight in Japan but a teen internationally. In Japan her age is never stated.* Clawdia Koopa is according to {{fanon}} Bowser's deceased wife. The rumor is Nintendo Power UK once mentioned her. The problem is nothing official has mentioned a "Clawdia" and there isn't even a European Nintendo Power. Clawdia comes from a fan site. * In 2007 a Youtube video popped up that supposedly showed that you could unlock a galaxy in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and play it on your UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. The DS didn't have the graphic capabilities but it was so well put together for a hoax that people believed it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action-Adventure/Action/Adventure]]* * OlderThanTheNES: Numerous rumours surrounded the works of Ultimate Play the Game, later known as Rare. Most famously, the cover of ''Lunar Jetman'' featured a moon buggy towing a trailer. [[CoversAlwaysLie The game featured the buggy, but not the trailer.]] Or did it? Rumours abounded about what the player had to do to unlock access to the trailer. ''Crash'' magazine published a screenshot sent in by a reader showing that he had achieved this feat, but the screenshot was a fake — the trailer never existed.* Many games featuring {{Third Person Seductress}}es are subject to "nude code" rumors, most famously ''VideoGame/TombRaider'''s Lara Croft.** As ''Magazine/GamePlayersMagazine'' put it: "Nude Raider. We know it doesn't exist. Thanks to this, you can spend hours futilely trying to get a woman to take her clothes off. Talk about realism!"** Of course, it was only a matter of time before the PC GameMod community [[VideoGamePerversityPotential made the dream]] [[UncannyValley reality]].** One of these (for ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive: Extreme Beach Volleyball'') was the subject of one of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly''[=s=] infamous April Fool's Day jokes.** Website/IGN64 played a similar April Fool's prank in its early years with IGN64.com claiming the secret for a Vanna White nude code in ''Series/WheelOfFortune 64''.** An ad in an American game magazine around the release of ''Tomb Raider 3'' for the game said something to the effect of "We've improved on everything you asked about... but sorry, still no nude code."** Arguably the UrExample of the Nude Code is the classic Australian magazine N64 Gamer. Then-deputy editor Narayan Pattison superimposed a topless picture of [[Creator/ElleMacPherson Elle [=MacPherson=]]] into a screenshot of ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'', with the caption "Write in and we may give you the nude code." The magazine received over 2000 responses from people asking for the nude code, and people were still asking for it over six months after the rumour was bluntly dispelled.** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat2'', the female characters were rumored to have "nude-alities". Heck of it is, it actually sounded somewhat plausible at the time. Mortal Kombat had ''already'' pissed off plenty of parents, why not take it to the next level?** Parodied by ''This Is Otakudom'', where they find a working nude code for ''VideoGame/SpaceChannel5'', ("Dude, they have screen shots") but later realized that it's actually codes for Mario.--->'''Mario''': It'sa me! Mario!* Due to a number of odd "clues" in the game, a number of people are searching ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' for hidden secrets and a "17th colossus" that keeps coming up in discussion despite absolutely no evidence or reason for it. Via emulation, glitches, hacks, and probably caffeine, a few members of the official forums have discovered some interesting DummiedOut sections of the map. Look for [=PikolUploader=] on Website/YouTube, or "last big secret" on Google, which points to the forum thread for finding such things.* ''VideoGame/BuckBumble'' had a cheat actually published as legitimate cryptically called "Dark Stinger" which had you input a long button combination before the opening logos appeared.* ''VideoGame/LegoRockRaiders'' has an annoying rumor of three cheat codes. Extensive looks and hacks show that they do not exist (though you can mod in what they are supposed to do), yet the rumor just keeps on.* An interesting example is in ''VideoGame/TheArtOfTheft'', by Creator/BenCroshaw. As a SelfImposedChallenge, the player can put on a special outfit that makes them ''more'' visible to guards, thus making the game more difficult. There was a rumor that if you complete the bonus mission (all seven of the previous levels in a row) using this outfit, it unlocks a minigame. What you actually get is a message that assumes you heard the rumor already and encourages you to continue telling people that the minigame exists, making this a rare example of a Urban Legend Of Zelda executed by the game designer.** In a similar vein, beating ''VideoGame/{{Shift}} [[http://armorgames.com/play/1846/shift-3 3]]'' unlocks [[http://www.fancypantsadventures.com/ Fancy Pants Man]] as a playable character; reviewers are encouraged by the game's ending message to identify the unlockable character as Mel Gibson instead.* Players initially believed that the dormant volcano in the first area of ''Uru: Ages Beyond Myst'' could be entered somehow, allowing access to the D'ni civilization. While this isn't true in the original game (the volcano isn't fully solid, and the attempting to climb it will dump you out of the level), a fan modification has not only made the volcano climbable, but ALSO allows the player to import data from ''Myst V: End of Ages'' into Uru - meaning that jumping into the volcano will actually allow access to the areas of the volcano seen in ''Myst V.'' Damned cool.* One persistent rumor on a few gaming sites said that jumping off of the Statue of Liberty 30 times in the game of ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2'' would let you play as Kermit the Frog. Sadly, this does not happen.* Back in the C64 days there was a graphic adventure game named ''Castle of Terror'' which gained a reputation for being NintendoHard because it seemed to be impossible to kill Count Dracula at the end of the game. A gaming magazine publishing an account from a gamer who claimed to have been able to do it, but the gamer himself proved mysteriously uncontactable when attempts were made to verify his claims. Many years later the designers confessed the game was in fact UnwinnableByDesign and it was impossible to kill Dracula.* Another one from the ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' series. There is a rumor that there are unreleased versions of ''Tomb Raider 2'' and ''Tomb Raider 3'' on the SegaSaturn and SegaDreamcast, respectively. The two games are believed to contain various unused content not included in other releases. These range from different outfits, unused weapons, better lighting (in the case of [=TR3=]), and even unreleased levels, such as the entire Peru section that was cut from the final version of [=TR3=].* There was a rumour going round a few years back that you could find the [[VideoGame/TombRaider2 Dagger Of Xian]] hidden away in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheAngelOfDarkness''. Apparently, you had to find a secret room hidden in the Aquatic Research Area to acquire it. Needless to say, neither the room nor the dagger exists.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Beat 'Em Up/Fighting]]* An earlier Electronic Gaming Monthly April Fool's Joke insisted that Simon Belmont of the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games was a secret character in the NES port of ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame''. After they got called on it, they "promised" never to do something like that again... while showing a picture of the ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' in the first NES ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' (which predated it by years). How were ''they'' to know that [[HilariousInHindsight later someone really would make a game called]] ''Battletoads [[IntercontinuityCrossover and]] Double Dragon''?* In fighting games, this trope takes the form of incessant rumors about unlockable characters. The most famous instance of this was the rumor about an impossibly hard way to cue a hidden final battle against an opponent named Sheng Long in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII: The World Warrior''. The character Ryu's win quote in the game was, "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance [against me]" -- using the Chinese name for his Dragon Punch, and mistranslating it; the proper translation would be more like "You must ''overcome'' ''my'' Dragon Punch to stand a chance [against me]." A version of this rumor was later published by the magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1992 as an April Fool's Day joke. It's rumored that the character Akuma in ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' was added because of the attention, as his appearance and abilities are similar to Sheng Long's; however, Capcom has neither confirmed or denied this (EGM repeated the joke five years later after ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII: New Generation'' was revealed, [[http://fightingstreet.com/folders/variousinfofolder/shenglong/shenglong.html complete with more doctored screenshots and even character artwork]]).** The EGM version of the rumor was that the player had to play as Ryu and win every fight without getting hit once UNTIL reaching M Bison, at which point you had to go 10 rounds not hitting M. Bison and not getting hit by him until finally Sheng Long was supposed to step in and fight you. If you won that fight, you unlocked Sheng Long. Talk about NintendoHard (EGM knew it too. The name of the fictional contributor to the trick was given as W.A. Stokens (Waste tokens)) of Fuldigan, HA (Fooled again, HA!).** Capcom acknowledged the joke on April Fool's Day 2008, when the official Japanese development blog for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' teased that Sheng Long was a playable character in the new game. At this point, though, everyone was cynical enough to know it was a joke. But a couple of weeks later, Capcom revealed that his actual equivalent, Ryu and Ken's master (and Akuma's brother) Gouken, was to become a character that players could fight in the arcade version...and control on the home versions. (On April 2nd, the Japanese site explained the origin of Sheng Long, and stated that "Sheng-Long is still now and always will be, truly a character of legend.")*** Taking the acknowledgement a step further, Gouken actually resembles the original "Sheng Long" graphic that EGM cooked up... and he has, in one way or another, ''every move EGM listed him as having.'' This may count as a {{Defictionalization}} SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.*** Prior to EGM's April Fools gag, "Sheng Long" was actually considered to be the name of Ryu and Ken's master by Capcom USA before the character was even given a name in Japan. In the manual for the SNES version of ''Street Fighter II'', Sheng Long is mentioned in Ryu's and Ken's profiles. However, the manuals for all subsequent ''Street Fighter II'' games removed all references to Sheng Long and the name "Gouken" was used instead.*** Additionally, Sheng Long was considered by Capcom to be included in the arcade version ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterTheMovie Street Fighter: The Movie]]''; they even had a mo-cap actor picked out and backstory established ([[http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/street-fighter-the-movie-broke-my-heart.21457/ all this and more can be found here, with the Sheng Long story on the second page,]] courtesy of Alan Noon, [[WordOfGod lead designer of the game himself]]), but this was scrapped. Interestingly, the plan was that Sheng Long was blinded in the aftermath of Akuma's failed murder, forcing him to wear a blindfold as a result, and that his chi was so great that his arm even began to physically take on aspects of a dragon.** On the note of ''Street Fighter II'', a quite persistent rumor when the SNES port came out was that of a "Boss Code" that let you play as the four boss characters. Some felt this justified because there ''was'' a code that let both players use the same character in their ''Champion Edition'' colors, something not possible in the arcade version of ''World Warrior''; plus, the CPU (including the bosses) would always use their character's alternate color if the code was entered. There's no actual way to play as the bosses in the game short of using a game enhancer and replacing your character's sprite or playing a [[http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/Street_Fighter_II:_Champion_Edition South American bootleg version]] which hacked them in. They did became playable in ''Street Fighter II Turbo''.** Theories abounded as to how to perform Ryu's "Red Hadoken" in ''Hyper Fighting''... Which was actually a random bug that was kept in the game. Then in ''Super Street Fighter II'', [[AscendedGlitch it was actually possible]] to deliberately perform a Red, fiery fireball...** Probably a minor example but after Mortal Kombat appeared there are occasional rumors of fatalities in VideoGame/StreetFighterII, mostly by school-age kids at the time.** Another rumor was of a special move to [[BloodyMurder shoot blood]] at the opponent, which would OneHitKill them if they were of a different blood type.** In ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha 3]]'', which came out after the Mike Tyson ear biting scandal, rumors persisted that it is possible to to purposefully throw the fight [[CoolLoser in a unique way]], when using Balrog the boxer (Mike Bison in Japan). It required the player to cancel Megaton Blow into a Super Combo as the punch lands, rotating the controller full circle twice and pressing all three Punch buttons, and he will attempt to bite his opponent until [[VideoGame/FinalFight Edi.E]] arrests him, forfeiting the fight.* ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', a veritable Urban Legend Of Zelda factory, claimed that ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' featured Sonic and Tails as unlockable characters, and gave a nearly (''very'' nearly) impossible method of unlocking them. Naturally, none of it was true, but not many gamers could find out for themselves before EGM confirmed that this method was actually their annual April Fool's Joke. To a lesser extent, someone online also said that Toad was unlockable. (The believability of the original rumor was enhanced by the fact that Sega had stopped producing its own game systems not long before, and the [=GameCube=] hosted the first Sonic game on a Nintendo system.) This rumor then moved to the game's sequel, ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', and eventually proved to be true.** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcPyf8-uE4k This suggests]] if you make Kirby suck up Mewtwo and then jump off a cliff, you'll get Mewthree. This version is adorable.** Same with playing as Giant DK and Metal Mario in the original ''Super Smash Bros.'', which were eventually acknowledged by the addition of Super Mushrooms and Metal Boxes in ''Melee''. If you use a Gameshark to play as either of them (or Master Hand, or any of the Fighting Polygon Team, for that matter), the game freezes at the end of the match, because none of those characters have an animation for the post-match "applause" screen. The same thing happens in ''Melee'' if you use the DebugMode to play as any of its normally unplayable enemy characters (Giga Bowser, the Wire Frames and the Hands).** IGN joked that an ExpansionPack for ''Brawl'' would be offered as part of a faux service called "Wii Expand". The supposed expansion in question is called ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl X: Extreme'', and it was said to be geared towards an adult audience, with gore and decapitations abound. [[http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/969169/ign-april-fools-videos/videos/supersmashexx_bc_spc_jpn.html Here is the footage of the supposed expansion pack in action]], as well as [[http://wii.ign.com/dor/articles/968498/smash-bros-goes-hardcore-video/videos/supersmashexx_spc_jpn.html an offscreen version]].** When it was announced that there were non-Nintendo characters in ''Brawl'' (and were pretty much instantly identified as Sonic and Solid Snake), the rumors instantly started that there would be a third character from Creator/{{Capcom}} in the mix (VideoGame/MegaMan being the most popular guess). When the full roster was announced, with no Capcom characters, scuttlebutt was (and still is) that there was some sort of falling out between Nintendo and Capcom that led to the proposed Capcom entry getting left out.*** TheOtherWiki shot down ''almost-''legitimate screen shots of the full select screen (the picture of [[VideoGame/StarFox Wolf]] was wrong, though Wolf really is in the game) shortly after the game was released in Japan... due to the fact that Bomberman wasn't on it. Seen [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Super_Smash_Bros._%28series%29/Archive_9#Japanse_screen_shot_of_Charcter_Select here.]]*** An interview with Keiji Inafune specifically asked if he was ever asked by Nintendo if they could put Franchise/MegaMan in ''Brawl''. He wasn't, but notes that if he was, he'd have said yes in a heartbeat.*** Mega Man eventually does make it into ''Super Smash Bros for Wii U/Nintendo 3DS'' as a default character.** There's a rumor stating that Miyamoto (or maybe Sakurai) said on a radio program that Bowser Jr., Ridley and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' Link would join Brawl while Ice Climbers, Young Link and Game & Watch would be taken out. The Link part was true, but pretty much by coincidence.*** Ridley was also put into Brawl, but as a boss character, so that makes 2 right. The rest, however, are still wrong.*** As of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games, Ice Climbers are out, and Bowser Jr. is in. As for Ridley, he reappears as a boss in the [[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Pyrosphere]] stage for the Wii U version, but will ally with whoever dominates him, so he's still not a PlayerCharacter. And of course, Mr. Game & Watch is still around.** There are also persistent rumours that the otherwise useless Goldeen will use [[OneHitKO Horn Drill]] under certain conditions.** Before the release of Brawl, there were reports of various Assist Trophies and Poke Ball Pokemon that had been seen at demos at conventions, such as [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]], [[VideoGame/{{Mother3}} Duster]], and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Sothe]]. None of them ended up being in the final game. The most likely assumption is that the blurry/hard-to-see gameplay footage, hazy recollections caused observers to mistake several ''real'' assist characters for the rumoured ones (e.g. Gardevoir for Rosalina, Isaac and/or Saki Amamiya for Sothe, and Barbara the Bat for Duster).** Before the Wii U title was released there was a screencap going around where Palutena said Pit in the original games looked like a one-night stand between [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue MissingNo]] and a garden gnome. Nevermind they'd never word it like that in an E rated game, it's in the wrong location. It still got well over 10 thousand notes on Tumblr and people thought it was real.** A [[DoingItForTheArt painstakingly]] faked Franchise/{{Rayman}} leak convinced many until [[http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/16/8047305/super-smash-bros-rayman-fake-video the leak's creator stepped forward and detailed the process]].* One of the most well-travelled examples; there were many, many rumoured ways to play as Goro, Shang Tsung, or Reptile in the first ''MortalKombat''. None of them worked.** Goro however, could be legitimately unlocked for normal play in the GameBoy version. There is also a glitch to (barely) control him in the SNES version. Goro is also available as player character by DLC in the upcoming ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''.** The rumor that Sub-Zero could become a polar bear in ''Mortal Kombat 2'' was so persistent that the creators added in "Animality" transformations to the third installment. Care to guess what Sub-Zero turned into?** Likewise, there were many, many rumors about Shang Tsung being able to transform into the character Kano, who was absent from ''[=MK2=]'' for plot reasons. The message "I HAVE NEVER SEEN A KANO TRANSFORMATION" briefly became a fan meme as a result. (This was all caused by a counter in the Arcade's test mode reporting the number of Kano morphs.)** Similarly, in ''[=MK2=]'', it was heavily rumored that the trees in the Living Forest stage could eat the opponent as part of a secret stage fatality. Not only was this bogus, but it remained so for all subsequent remakes of the stage.*** Referenced in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatShaolinMonks'' (it was actually a requirement to progress in the Living Forest stage) and finally made into a real stage fatality in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9''.** ''Mortal Kombat 2'' had a very well known rumor that you could knock people onto the hooks in the Dead Pool stage.** The first ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' allegedly had a rare occurence where Scorpion or Sub-Zero would appear in a red outfit, and the words "ERMAC" would appear over the life bar, as shown by a faked screenshot in Electronic Gaming Monthly. There hasn't been a single case where the supposed Ermac "glitch" was triggered without hacking into the game. The name, short for "error macros," only appeared on a debug menu, and the red costume was because, when the actors performed their moves, their costumes were usually colored red to avoid clashing with the green screen. The original sprites were red, with blue/yellow/green/whatever added on as a color palette to differentiate between characters. So the "Error Macro" coinciding with a complete lack of a color palette makes sense. And of course, Ermac nevertheless made his official debut in ''Ultimate VideoGame/MortalKombat3''.*** The beauty of the above 4 entries is that when they made ''Shaolin Monks'', they took pretty much every widespread rumor that could be even remotely possible and made them true, so yes, you can fight Kano, feed Mooks to the trees in the Living Forest, knock them into the hooks in Dead Pool and fight Ermac as well. They also inserted a lot of even more fake rumors into the random "hints" the game gives you whenever you die, although those are far less likely to end up on this page.** There was also the case of Hornbuckle in ''Mortal Kombat 2''. Sometimes, Jade would appear on the screen and say "Hornbuckle who?" leading fans to believe that there may have been a hidden character with that name; a lot of fans gave the name to the unnamed warrior seen fighing the fiery warrior (named Blaze in later games) in the background of The Pit 2. In truth, Ed Boon said at one point that the character in the background was actually Liu Kang. Jade's comment was, in fact, a reference to Leanne Hornbuckle, someone mentioned in the game's end credits. ** One they didn't insert was the common, highly juvenile belief in a secret character named Go-Nad. Or the similar hoax Computer and Video Games magazine put in one April issue regarding the second game, where they claimed one version contained Pedro, a Mexican brawler with a flammable anus.** An obscure red Kitana palette character called Skarlet (from the same glitch/coloring issue that created Ermac). She would later become DLC in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' complete with defined abilities.** Since ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', rumors of "Super Unlockable" characters have emerged, with completely ridiculous methods of acquiring them coming to light. None of them have ever been proven true.** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'' had a rumor that if you beat Onaga on Very Hard, you could unlock Motaro.** Finally, there's the infamous "Nudeality" rumor. ''Mortal Kombat'' seems to be a magnet to this trope. In fact, the fact that the games keep including new types of Fatalities cause rumors of types that don't exist, such as the Hookality, Nationality, Rapality, Sexuality, Beastiality, and Weirdality, just to name a few. *** This is based on ''VideoGame/TattooAssassins'', a cheap knockoff of Mortal Kombat. Its only claim to fame is its "Nudealities". There is a video on Youtube if you are so inclined.** There's also the infamous Nimbus Terrafaux hoax by EGM.** NMS (Now ONM) magazine printed a [[http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?p=419328 hilarious and widely believed article]] explaining exactly how taping a penny to the top of your SNES ''Mortal Kombat'' cartridge, adding a certain amount of weight to it, then certain codes at certain times while using certain fighters would unlock the blood and new fatalities. It was called "Killer Kombat Mode".** Babalities and Friendships also originated as spurious rumors. ** There was a long rash of rumors revolving around the SNES port of ''Mortal Kombat'', mostly about how to enter a blood code. The SNES was the more popular console at that time and most gamers only had one console, so a method of unlocking blood for SNES was the holy grail. Most of the rumored codes were nearly impossible, like entering a long string of buttons in some tiny time frame such as when Goro appears on the opening screens.*** On the SNES version of MK, it actually was possible to use a Game Genie code to PaletteSwap the "sweat" back into blood. However, there never was any way of restoring the original fatalities, since the necessary animation frames simply didn't exist in the ROM.* Fighting games seem to attract these sorts of things. In ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'', one of Orchid's finishing moves was flashing her opponent (though of course the player couldn't see anything). Reportedly, on one stage, if you positioned her in front of a mirror and performed the finisher, you could see her breasts. The developer's response? "I don't recall a mirror in that stage."* There is a cheat that was in some early [=FAQ=]s of the first ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' for the PlayStation that would unlock Justice, Testament and Baiken without having to beat the game all the way through. Turns out it really just increased the game's difficulty in Normal Mode.* There was a rumor in Japan that if the player completes the Famicom version of ''[[VideoGame/KungFuMaster Kung-Fu]]'' 24 times (the number equivalent to the letter "X", a reference to the Japanese title ''Spartan X''), the player will forced to fight Sylvia (the hero's girlfriend) as a BonusBoss. It turns out the rumor was a started by a gag in a video game manga titled ''Famicom Rocky'', where the protagonist uncovers this secret after completing the game too many times. This is what inspired the ''WebAnimation/NatrapsX'' series of parody videos.* There were also persistent rumors that, if you beat ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai'' on the hardest difficulty, you would be able to play through the Buu Saga in the Story Mode, especially after people found Great Saiyaman as a playable character. However, no matter how hard you try, there is no such thing coded in the game.* Rumor had it that the ''X-Men arcade game'' had a secret, more satisfying ending that would only be unlocked if you beat the game multiple times in a row on the same playthrough (since normally, a victory looped you back to start to continue your credit). Proving or disproving it required more time and more quarters than most kids could manage. The rerelease makes it clear that it's not true.* There are many (joking) rumors on how to unlock secret characters for ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Scarlet Weather Rhapsody]]'', the most prevalent ones allowing you to unlock [[{{Tykebomb}} Flandre Scarlet]] and [[AnIcePerson Cirno]]. This was not helped by fans making their sprites for ''{{MUGEN}}'' based on the ''SWR'' spriting style; many of them emulated the look incredibly well, going so far as to modify SFX from the game to fit the fanmade sprites. (The Cirno rumors were officially killed with her inclusion in ''[[ExpansionPack Hisoutensoku]]'', though Flandre fans are still left waiting.) ** A slight bone was tossed to Flandre's fans — one of Remilia's alternate color schemes is essentially Flandre.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Driving Game]]* There were rumors everywhere talking about being able to break free a Thwomp named Marty in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64''. Fans dubbed the name to the Thwomp that was behind bars in the Bowser's Castle track. Once ''Mario Kart Wii'' showed N64 Bowser's Castle as a retro track, the rumors briefly resurfaced, but most brought it up as a joke.** There were also unrelated rumours in nearly every other game in the series. Super Circuit had the rumour of Waluigi as playable, DS had the rumour of an unlockable Rainbow Cup (four retro Rainbow Roads in a row), Double Dash had the April Fools Day joke and rumour of Retro Cups, and Wii had a Maple Treeway glitch rumour which turned out to be a hoax.** MarioKart 7 ALSO has a Maple Treeway glitch rumour/hoax. Different supposed 'trick', but it too ended up getting disproved by a fan made video...** Mario Kart Wii had rumors flying around that there was a Mii Outfit C as an unlockable purely because the spacing in the character roster was uneven and possible had space for another character. Naturally, this was disproved and the rumor starters never gave a clear answer on what the C outfit looked like.*** It was possible that the rumor started after people looked into the game files and found some [[DummiedOut icons regarding to a 3rd Mii outfit]], but there was no actual model in the game for reference.* ''Videogame/CrashTeamRacing'' held rumors that Nitrous Oxide was a secret playable character if you beat certain requirements. This was a persistent rumor for a good while since the game's release.** It didn't help that every single other boss is unlockable, and there was actually another super-secret character, Penta Penguin, who could only be unlocked through cheats. You get Tropy for beating all of his (easier) staff ghosts, so it stands to reason that you get Nitrous for beating all of his extremely difficult ghosts. Instead, you just get a shortcut to the scrapbook on the main menu (HundredPercentCompletion is a much easier way to see the scrapbook).** There have been a lot of rumors for a new ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' game. The most common cites the game as a game called "Crash Bandicoot 3D: Uka Uka Resurrection".* During the heyday of ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'' 2, there are rumors that the [=McLaren=] F1 is a hidden playable car by collecting 100 cars (the maximum allowed by the game) in black, as the US cover suggested such car.. The [=FIA=] [=GT1=]-spec race car made its debut in [=GT4=], while the road car was added in [=GT5=].** There have been many rumors surrounding the DummiedOut courses in the second installment of the game and why you can't get 100% completion in that game.** During the early days of ''4'', some websites suggested that, if the player has more than 2000 A-spec points, a paint shop would be supposedly unlocked. The feature did not exist; instead, [=GT5=] added the ability to repaint cars and aftermarket rims from the GT Auto menu.* For a while, [[NGamer N64 Magazine]] ran a joke section featuring reviews of games from an AlternateUniverse such as ''[[VideoGame/DukeNukem The Duke of Nukem]]'' and ''[[BodyHarvest Bill Oddie Harvest]]''. A number of shops reported customers coming in and asking for ''Beatles Adventure Racing'' (a parody of ''VideoGame/BeetleAdventureRacing'' starring Music/TheBeatles).* ''LEGORacers'' had a supposed cheat, where if you named a character "TRUCK DRIVER" and beat Rocket Racer with it, you would get some sort of super secret car or something along the lines of that. It started to spread all over the Internet, until it was eventually confirmed false through several debunkings. [[GameMod Modding]] has further shown that there are no indicators of the cheat ever existing to begin with, or planned at any point in time.[[/folder]]

[[folder:First-Person/Third-Person Shooter]]* A good example would be the rumored hidden levels of ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' with wall-climbing invincible red Drinniols. People believed it because The Marathon Secrets Guide is who said it, and everybody trusts them. It was eventually [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]] when the game was ported to the Aleph One engine.** There were false rumors of a true 3D ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' game called "Dr'At'Er", and one website claimed to have screenshots of it. The pictures were actually dolled up ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' screenshots. BTW, Drater is "retard" [[SdrawkcabName backwards]].* The oldest and first existence of this trope dates back to 1980: Atari's ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1980}}'' and its vector graphic system became the stuff of legend when it was reported that one could actually drive to the edge of the "zone" and climb into the mountains, to the peak of the volcano. Reportedly, there was a castle at its peak, which could be explored, if only you drove far enough. Sadly, such an exploration was never possible; it was far beyond the capabilities of the era.** This set of rumors was prevalent enough that arcade owners were complaining about people hogging the ''Battlezone'' machines without actually playing the game. As such, the developers ended up adding a small bit of code in later variants that would make a missile instantly home in and kill a player if they failed to kill anything within a reasonable amount of time.* ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' once had an April issue prank where they claimed that you could unlock all the other actors of the Film/JamesBond series in the N64 game ''VideoGame/{{GoldenEye|1997}} 007''. There was some minor truth in that the game did have the data for the other actors present, but it had been DummiedOut over not being able to secure the likenesses of the other actors for the game. [[GameMod ROM hacking]] has allowed the fandom to (a tad bit messily) [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldenEye_007#All_Bonds add that back in]], though.** Rare actually went so far as to lie about the above, and about another rumour that turned out to be true; a supposed secret level known as "Citadel." Via some serious hacking, Citadel turned out to exist; it's an engine test level.** A large amount of speculation, including about the mythical All Bonds cheat, centered on the missing entry at the end of the cheat menu. It turns out this is actually for a cut cheat called "Line Mode" which can be accessed only through a button press code and has no normal unlock method.** An unaccessible island in the very first level also provided a lot of rumor fuel, from being the result of leftover testing artifacts to housing secret items of unimaginable power. It was later revealed that it was indeed meant to be an integral part of the first mission but abandoned to allow for space in the hardware for local multiplayer and for being uninteresting, and what had been developed at that point was simply left in.** Rumours of a third secret level based on ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' and/or ''Film/AViewToAKill'' circulated due to the presence of the characters Oddjob and Mayday in the multiplayer character list. Oddjob is actually in the game because Rare mistook him for Scaramanga's assistant Nick-Nack from ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' (the real Oddjob was not in any way short), but it's not clear what Mayday is doing in the list.** Ourumov's briefcase and key were the subject of some speculation, often held to be part of some method to access the above and/or the island on Dam. They were actually part of an abandoned level idea that would have taken place between Silo and Frigate.** Some rumours talked about a secret weapon called the Skorpion or Spyder, believing it to be the weapon shown on the back of the box. In fact, the box image is the beta [=KF7=] Soviet, while "Skorpion" and "Spyder" are both beta names for the Klobb - the former is its [[AKA47 real world name]], while the latter was what it had been going by until Rare learned there was another real gun by that name. Part of the confusion is that the manual refers to the Klobb as the Spyder, as the second name change came very late during development.* The infamous Yellow Banshee rumor from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', which was possibly referenced in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' with the heretic Banshee. In fact, each ''Halo'' game has rumors of a secret vehicle, the most prevalent being Drivable Scarabs and the Golden Warthog.** ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'''s not-quite-{{Metroidvania}} style gameplay is ripe for this kind of rumormongering. Stories of hidden energy swords are pretty popular. Rumors of living Elites hidding somewhere in the city crop up from time to time as well. Don't even get started on all those strange markings that pop up in VISR mode.** A legend said that if you looked carefully through the Library level in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' you would have found the mangled corpse of Marvin Mobuto, said in the game-inspired book to have made his way through a decent part of the Flood-infested library before getting overwhelmed by the monsters.* Back when ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}'' was in development, there was a rumour that another 3D shooter, ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', contained a hidden demo of the game that could be unlocked by performing a complicated sequence of actions in the first level. The instructions for it required very precisely timed moves, which of course helped keep the rumour going - if it didn't work, people just assumed they didn't do it quite right.** ''Quake'' found itself announced for the first time in the April issues of many popular games magazines, who found themselves receiving numerous letters telling them how "obviously fake" the idea of a full-3D FPS was.* The ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fandom is rife with fake updates--some, like the [[http://guarddog.50webs.com/ Guard Dog Update]], are jaw-droppingly realistic and are only given away by the obviously not Valve-sponsored [=URLs=]. Valve's response to the above, [[http://www.teamfortress.com/1308.htm in character as Saxton Hale]].** As the Engineer Update was approaching, there were all sorts of rumors about what you had to do to get the Golden Wrench. ''Webcomic/NerfNow'' [[http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/335 demonstrates.]]* The Passing in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' spawned this immediately on the day it was released. [[spoiler: It is said that you can use the defibrillator on Bill's body to bring him back to life but this rumor was extremely short lived as it was proven that the body is just a prop and not a dead bot since there is no red outline on the body when you hold out the defibrillator.]]** People also insist that you heal each other instead of yourself because it makes the AI Director "reward" this teamwork action with more first aid kits in the maps. There hasn't been any hard proof that supports this theory but people will still push you to heal them instead of yourself as if the theory were true. This is actually stated on the [=L4D=] wiki, so true or not, it's pretty widely believed.** There's also another myth passing around with the bots of the old survivors in The Passing. It is believed that giving Louis (or any of the other guys) pills or shots will make the bot have better aim and give players better items. The bots will only give certain items based on the situation; if the survivors are hurting, health items are more likely to be given. If the players are doing well, they will generally get bomb items. The bots can also toss down an [[{{BFG}} M60]] and a [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]], [[RandomlyDrops but those are extremely rare.]] On top of this, the bots do not get any better in their shots since it is possible for the team to get wiped, even if you gave the other bots items beforehand.** The rumours about [[FanNickname Church Guy]] then? Some believed that he could become a Tank or a [[{{Crossdresser}} Witch]] instead of the other Specials available. The truth is that Valve didn't intend it, but [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B3pZiRvvu8 as demonstrated here]], it isn't hard to ''make'' him one.* Many previews for the dino-hunting game ''VideoGame/{{Carnivores}} 2'' said it would feature a secret, unlockable rocket launcher. Subsequent examination of the game's data files, and later its source code, have shown that there is no trace in the game of a rocket launcher, though one may have been planned early in development.* One persistent rumor among the ''ModernWarfare'' community is a program, snfg.exe - nicknamed "Sniper Frog", supposedly running in the background and doling out "luck" like headshots and better kill streak crates. Of course, there has never been a source for this beyond unnamed "hackers" and worst of all, the people spreading the rumors can't even agree who the program is supposed to be benefiting. Some claim that it favors low-level players to encourage newbies and others claim it supports high-level players to keep them interested and buying map packs as opposed to moving on to new games.* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' has an interesting legend that involves donating Hearts, the currency you gain from monsters. The game outright tells you there's no items rewarded for doing so- all it does is bring the Goddess Palutena [[spoiler: or Viridi]] closer to the screen- but others believe this leads to a higher chance for weapon discounts in the shop.** There actually is a reward of sorts, however, it's just not items: donating enough hearts unlocks a few extra lines of dialog with Palutena or Viridi, depending on who you give them to. It's only one or two per chapter, and most players who even have given enough hearts might overlook it, especially if they do so for the first playthrough of a given chapter.* Shortly after the Columbine school shooting, it was discovered that both boys played ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' religiously, and that Dylan Klebold made his own custom WAD files. For a while the media loved to claim that he had made a level based off of Columbine HS for "training"; ignoring the fact that this is impossible[[note]]''Doom'' isn't sophisticated enough to do multiple floors on top of one another, to begin with[[/note]]. Later people found and tested out the similar "Harris Levels" made by fellow shooter Eric Harris and found them to be quite crude, with an impossible amount of enemies to defeat, and graffiting phrases on the walls such as 'Looking for me?'.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hack and Slash]]* The original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' game had a rumor of a "secret cow level" that the player could access by clicking on a certain cow in the town of Tristram. Although this rumor proved false, in ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' the developers put in an actual cow level in homage to the rumor; similarly, a secret Cow quest was added to the third-party expansion Hellfire, although it wasn't a genuine "Cow level". The phrase "There is no cow level" is also a ClassicCheatCode in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and a loading screen tutorial tip in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. (It's false; there ''is'' a cow level. Thunder Bluff is ''full'' of [[http://www.wowwiki.com/File:Tauren_Dancing.gif Tauren]], 8 foot bipedal cows.)** The ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' instance of the secret Cow level was again referenced in one of their most recent April Fool's jokes: an advertisement for their new "Diablo 3 body pillow" featured a disclaimer at the bottom warning users "do not transmute the pillow with Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal."** Also, in the Battle.net chat interface in ''Diablo II'', there is a gem that can be clicked on to toggle a lit/unlit state, but appears to do nothing functional. Occasionally when you click on it, it will give a message, such as "Perfect gem activated." Hundreds of rumors about the gem's actual, secret function have spawned. All [[BlizzardEntertainment Blizzard]] has said about it is that it is "Working as intended."*** After initially being very hush-hush about it, [[http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/faq/multiplayer.shtml#gem Blizzard eventually came clean]]: [[http://www.diablowiki.net/Chat_Gem all it does is turn off and on]]. It's not connected to anything.*** The official site for ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', specifically, the home page, has its own chat gem. After a massive thread on the Battle.net forums discussing whether clicking the gem a certain number of times would unlock the playable version of the gameplay demo seen when the game was released (started by a forum troll and helped by various random people confirming it), the matter was laid to rest when someone looked in the source code of the site, decompiled the flash that operated the chat gem, and determined that its only purpose was to change colors, changing the gem from "on" to "off".*** This was directly referenced in the ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' world editor, where there is a gem that says "gem activated/deactivated". When clicked multiple times, one of the characters will taunt you. It is functional, however: It makes it so that the units you spawn will say their "Ready" quote, and will do their death animation when you delete them.** Another long-enduring ''Diablo II'' legend is [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Reziarfg Reziarfg]], a monster created by Blizzard's Battle.net staff at the Arreat Summit as an April Fools joke, with stats and some official-sounding lore to back it up. Many Hardcore characters have lost their lives trying to find the elusive beast.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Multi-Genre]]* ''Game Informer'' does an annual part of their April magazine called Game Infarcer, where they parody their own writing in honor of April Fools Day. In 2006, the first edition of Game Infarcer, they wrote many fake articles about such new game tools as the Wii Balls, world events such as Game Designers Inciting World War III, interviews with the CEO of Sony, who also happened to be a cyborg, and a review on downloadable content for Madden '08, where people would have to purchase such elementary things as air for the ball. Put bluntly, there are actually people who didn't notice the word "PARODY" written at the bottom of the page and sent angry letters to GI about their info or in one notable case, went to the local Gamestop to preorder the Wii Balls in either the flesh colored sack or the blue one.[[/folder]]

[[folder:[=MMORPG=]s]]* In early beta versions of ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline: Stormreach'', there was a bug where using your "diplomacy" skill on a treasure chest caused it to give better loot. Although this bug was fixed well before the game went live, the rumor that using diplomacy on a chest gives better loot still remains, despite repeated debunkings by the game's developers on the official forums.* {{MMORPG}}s tend to develop a ton of rumors due to their fluid and ever-changing nature.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' is a magnet for this. The game has a ton of dead end caves, background details, and sealed off portions of the world, which were placed to give possible expansion areas. The latter, in particular, draws a lot of rumors. Sealed off portions (presumably abandoned due to most of them being in the "old world") include the Mithra-only part of Kazham, the ship port in Norg, the Galka-only part of Bastok Mines, and the roped-off stairway in Tenshodo headquarters.** There were also some rumors of classic ultimate weapons in the Final ''Fantasy'' series existing in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''. For example, the Ultima Weapon, the InfinityPlusOneSword of the series, existed in the database of sites like Allakazam. Many claim that the weapons do actually exist in the game database, they just haven't appeared in the game yet.** There's also the infamous Vulcan's and Jupiter's Ring, complete with "screenshots."** Countless crafters believe - for no other reason than because they heard it from another crafter - that crafting success can be influenced by facing in a certain direction depending on what kind of crystal is being used. Crafters who have a background in statistics, who have logged hundreds of crafting attempts and performed the appropriate analysis, and who have mathematically determined that theory to be complete bullshit, generally go ignored.*** This is a huge drama in the FFXI world and has started long arguments, guides, images, and even a [[http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html nuclear clock]]. The developers at Creator/SquareEnix were asked about it at Vana Fest, but their answer was convoluted, and it seems [[http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1169758710113967020&howmany=50 nobody can even remember what they said]]. The only real reason to follow the directions is because crafting is so goddamn hard in the first place, people are willing to do nearly anything to sink just a little less time and money into it.** There's also [[ThatOneBoss Absolute Virtue.]] AV's [[NighInvulnerable difficulty]], as well as the dev team's habit of changing the fight if someone beats him spawned numerous strange theories about how to bring him down.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' spawned many rumors and theories over how to obtain the [[RareDrop Amtas]], items needed to power up your InfinityPlusOneSword, quickly. Some believe that you have to complete a FATE during specific times in the Japanese time zone while others believe doing the events in a specific order boosts the drop rate. Despite the fact that WordOfGod stated that the Atma drop rate is pure RNG, many people refuse to listen and cling to the hope that any theory will reduce the time needed to farm.* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s Ashbringer. The developers left ''just'' enough (especially when they put in the corrupted Ashbringer and the 'special scene' it triggers in Scarlet Monastery) to make people believe they could actually get (or cleanse) the legendary sword. The problem is that they kept pushing the cleansing back; it was supposed to appear in the original game, but then was pushed back to ''The Burning Crusade'', and then was finally pushed back to ''Wrath of the Lich King''. The actual hints in the game are meaningless, such as the second son not being found in Outland like the 'quest' said he was supposed to, and Darion Mograine being located in Northrend as the leader of the playable Death Knights instead. Blizzard released a 4-issue miniseries that deals with the Ashbringer, giving it a backstory unrelated to the hints. This being said, there are some less than clear hints (if you took careful notes or just look it up on Wowpedia) that at one time Blizzard had begun laying the questline for Ashbringer (such as the actual sword having a database entry, and there being multiple inaccessible quest fragments), the quest originally had something to do with the legendary ''Warcraft'' fisherman Nat Pagle, and the bits of his guides on fishing that may or may not actually be part of some secret message to reveal Ashbringer's location. Blizzard was reportedly so impressed (odd, because Blizzard has a record of hating modders and private servers) with the detective work that they added in a rare dagger called Dustbringer that is a random drop aquired from fishing in Northrend. The Ashbringer rumors have also been fueled by the many strange things that happened in Pre-''Burning Crusade'' [=WoW=] when you carried around the corrupted Ashbringer (things like triggering a hidden cinema, and the sword talking to you, sometimes delivering cryptic messages) and by Blizzard's habit of adding/removing/messing with very hard to find items in the game (see: Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian).** The Corrupted Ashbringer was only added in the first place due to the reaction to the scattered references to the sword that existed at the time, some of which may or may not have even been related. Ironically, the overwhelming response to this sword caused Blizzard to {{retcon}} most of what was established (including the player getting the corrupted version) so that they could make the sword extremely important to the plot.** There are also rumors about quests only attainable while in ghost form that nobody has found. This might be true because there are some quests that require you to be a ghost, and a GM has given a cryptic response that suggest that those are not the only quests of that type. There was also a rumor you could stay in ghost form and revive anywhere else there was a restoration spirit. This, while true in the beta testing phase of the game, was taken out during official release.** There used to be a way to get to GM Island, and a weird net-wide rumor was spread fast by younger players that if you reached GM Island you'd get crowned an in-game GM. The truth is if you get to GM Island, you're most likely to get banned.** There were also rumors and even a forum dedicated to some of the most unusual things in ''World of Warcraft''; the first being that you could get to certain areas that at the time didn't exist (or still do not) in game, the second was that you could find a secret merchant if you were able to go all the way out into the ocean in Seal Form as a druid not too far away from Duskwood, the third being you could swim to GM Island and if you managed to do so you would become a GM (instead you would be banned, as stated above), and the final rumor was thanks to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', that the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sword of a Thousand Truths]] was an actual in-game item.*** The Sword of a Thousand Truths was actually put in ''Wrath of the Lich King'', though renamed to Slayer of the Lifeless. The description for the sword says "Foretold by Salzman", a reference to the ''South Park'' episode, and its name refers to the unnamed player killer in the same episode, who is described as having "no life", and is defeated with the Sword of a Thousand Truths. Another sword called Gladiator's Slicer in ''The Burning Crusade'' was originally going to be the Sword of a Thousand Truths in beta versions.* For April Fool's Day 2009, a quest involving an airship was implemented in ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]''. Of course, this being the first of April, the airship never went anywhere, instead crashing the game if one tried to fly in it. And being the first of April, it was natural that users would come up with their own pranks. So it was only a matter of time before someone decided to come up with some insane method to get the airship to fly. When someone finally did, people [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/zomg-gaia-s-mmo/airship-and-airshark-guide-omg-april-fool-d/t.48633513/ ran with it]], with dozens of people contributing "information" about the new area. Though very few, if any, players fell for it, the prank was popular enough to turn the Airshark into a minor meme.** The Airshark (which in itself was a parody of the infamous "Landshark" boss), was so popular with the staff that they actually added it into the game as a Random Event.* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixOnline'' has a long-running example of this trope in the form of "Hack the Ground Smash". The rumor stated that using a fake ability called "Hack the Ground Smash" at a certain location would cause the ground to break away, and you'd fall into "Morpheus' secret hideout" where Neo and/or Morpheus are waiting for you. The fake ability apparently has its roots in a very, very old video of the game during its pre-beta days which showed a player using a Hacker ability that involved smashing an energy-charged fist into the ground. This ability never made it into the live game.* The introduction of several boss characters in ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' was accompanied by rumors on how to get them to appear and/or weaken them. The best example would be several versions of the same "method" to get pushover boss Mano to appear, which involved either killing certain enemies, letting certain enemies spawn, or both at once. In truth, the boss spawns every hour from when it is killed.* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has killing the hermit (a certain shopkeeper), with a multitude of ways (supposedly) abounding to defeat him.** This is lampshaded in multiple items these days, and amongst the veteran players, "killing the hermit" has come to refer to a ''different'' kind of FanWank...** Also can turn up due to certain players having access to certain NPC "character accounts" and using them in mail and chat rooms to create plot which may not match what the game developers have in mind at all.* The German-based MMORPG ''VideoGame/{{Tibia}}'' had a number of these for a number of years, with ways to get legendary items like the Sword of Fury (a converted spike sword that was readily available outside the beginning area) in the first levels, access to a GM island, and of course, a way to open up the Pits of Inferno or fight the Ruthless Seven.** The Pits were eventually opened and the Ruthless Seven became playable bosses.* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' once had a player swear Bob the Cat had spoken to him about some recipe or something that no one else ever heard him say. Jagex was coy about it and implied it was a hint at a later event in game.** There is a rumor about Jagex hiding a secret item in the free version of the game and leaving an incredibly cryptic trail of clues in random junk items. Supposedly, anyone who found said item would get a free lifetime membership.** There was another pervasive myth, dating back to 2001, about an underground farm that could be accessed by using a sapphire on a particular tree. Later versions of the myth swapped the sapphire for a herring. The farm was generally rumored to contain fantastic new armor; the herring era whispered of a place where the then-rare rune armor could be found scattered on the ground. One early resurgence of the story can be found [[http://web.archive.org/web/20020512023931/http://runetipit.board.dk3.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26759&forum=1&24 here]]. It's been said that this was the inspiration for the city of Zanaris.*** Using a herring on a tree does have a unique effect... [[spoiler: ''Creator/MontyPython'' references.]]** For a time, the clothing store in Varrock listed a [[CommonplaceRare Red Party Hat]] among its stock. Said hat was always out of stock, which led players to wait in the shop for ''hours'' on end hoping that it would restock. It ended up spawning all kinds of rumors about when/if the shop would ever restock. Ultimately, Jagex removed the item from the stock listing.* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has an infamous item called "Erebrandir's Horseshoe". It's granted as an optional quest reward in Volume III of the Epic quest. The horseshoe is a "pocket item" which can be equipped, but it gives no stats. However, it displays a buff on the player with a horseshoe icon and tooltip text that reads "Some people believe that horseshoes bring good fortune." Rumours as to the horseshoe's function have proliferated over the years, mostly revolving around the ability to affect loot chances or other randomness-based effects. In an interesting twist, the Horseshoe ''definitely does'' do ''something'', according to WordOfGod. Only two of the Horseshoe's functions have been explicitly revealed, with hints that more undiscovered functions still exist. However, most of the loot-based theories thrown out by the community have been explicitly {{Jossed}}, so those still qualify for the trope.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Platform Game]]* ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' was plagued by rumors that it was possible to sail the ship ("The Bow" and "The Yacht") away to an island and continue exploring over there; the persistence of these rumors resulted in the feature's inclusion in ''Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier''.* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'''s Stop 'n' Swop. Oh God, Stop 'n' Swop. Throughout the game there were certain odd areas and things that seemed suspicious, but didn't actually do anything -- a sealed off door a small distance away from the sphinx in the desert level, a tiny spit of land nonetheless dubbed "Sharkfood Island" in the beachfront level, and, most suspiciously, a patently visible and patently unreachable Ice Key in one area of [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Freezeezy Peak]]. Mumbo Jumbo the shaman showed you pictures of these areas in the end cutscene, revealing that the desert door and Sharkfood Island held secret special eggs within them, and told you the eggs and key would be useful "in ''Banjo-Tooie''" (the sequel). Tons of rumors circulated about the items, and eventually, a fan site released codes that would allow you to get the ice key, visit Sharkfood Island, and break open the door. More special eggs were since discovered in the following areas: an unbreakable barrel in one area of [[BigBoosHaunt Mad Monster Mansion]], on top of Loggo the toilet in a separate area of the mansion, the bed in the captain's cabin in Rusty Bucket Bay, and the table in Nabnut the squirrel's house in the winter portion of Click Clock Wood. This opened up a feature called Stop 'n' Swop, which showed you your collection of special items, but didn't seem to allow you to do anything with them. When ''Banjo-Tooie'' came along, there was no more mention of Stop 'n' Swop, and nothing came of it. After years of pestering on the part of fans, Rareware finally admitted that it had once had plans, but they were [[ExecutiveMeddling killed by the higher-ups]] for being incompatible with the Nintendo 64 hardware: specifically, as the name suggests, the idea was to change the game cartridges while the game was running, but later versions of the N64 dropped the amount of time the data would remain in RAM after removing the cart from 30 seconds to 3 or so. To make up for it, there were three secret areas in ''Banjo-Tooie'' that contained ''Banjo-Kazooie'' cartridges that, when cracked open, gave you the items Mumbo showed you in the previous game's ending. Nabnut's special egg was also in the game, though it is not obtained through breaking a ''Banjo-Kazooie'' cartridge. None of these items, however, required any interaction with the first game to get. The two ports of the original ''B-K'' games for Xbox Live Arcade have integrated Stop 'n' Swop into the games after all these years. ''Banjo-Kazooie'' will unlock extra vehicle parts in ''Nuts & Bolts'', while ''Banjo-Tooie'' will unlock extra vehicles for ''Nuts & Bolts'' as well, provided that you've downloaded the ''L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges'' ExpansionPack. As for ''Banjo-Kazooie'' and ''Banjo-Tooie'' themselves, you will get the same bonuses as before, as well as a Gamer Pic of Banjo and Kazooie, and a Banjo-Kazooie Theme for your Xbox Dashboard, in addition to something else we'll bring up a couple of bullets in...** There were dozens of impossible ways to "unlock" the ice key and so on, to the point that everybody swore up and down that no, there was absolutely no way at all to possibly even get close to the mysterious eggs...and then, ''years'' later, it was revealed you really ''could''. Bonus points for the fact that the legit unlock was almost as ridiculous as the rumors--you had to figure out, then noodle in phrases as long as "CHEAT AMIDST THE HAUNTED GLOOM A SECRET IN THE BATHROOM" one letter at a time on a gigantic alphabet grid.*** For a double example, one rumor (apparently trying to salvage previous ones from the reveal of the actual codes) claimed that, no, there were real ways to get all those items without the passwords, and ''using the passwords meant you couldn't get the rewards for getting the items.'' Dastardly.** Upon the release of ''Banjo-Tooie'' on XBLA, Rare manages to spring a new one on us: ''Stop 'n' Swop '''II'''''. This one is more of a list of seven objectives to complete. In order to get them all, you must hatch all of the original Stop 'n' Swop eggs, find the new Bronze, Silver, and Gold Eggs, defeat all the bosses under a total time of 15 minutes, become every possible transformation in the game, and kill yourself during boss battles a number of times. These are said to be useful in another game, but for now, they're just {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s.* The ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series had a few of these. There was a rumor that you could play as X in ''Zero 2'' and that ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX X]]'' series recurring villain Vile would be an optional boss in ''Zero 4''. Both turned out to be Photoshop hoaxes. There's also the legend of Ghost Sigma, who was supposedly a hidden boss. This rumor even resurfaced upon the release of ''MegaManZX''. It didn't help that in ''Zero 3'' you could have a rematch with Phantom, who died in the first game.** Also one of the bosses in ''Zero 2'' used Vile-shaped projectiles for one of his attacks, adding fuel to those boss ideas.* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'', finishing the game in under an hour will let you see Samus in a bikini (also, you get to play as Samus wearing only a leotard with certain codes, the most infamous of which is JUSTIN BAILEY). Naturally, some claim that beating it in under half an hour or some other humanly impossible time will let you see and/or play as her naked. This is not the case.** One site even discussed a myth that you could play as Kraid if you beat it fast enough.** Another Urban Legend of Zelda is that "Justin Bailey" has an actual meaning. It doesn't. It's not a person's name and "bailey" is not a slang term for "swimsuit". It's just that the password system uses real letters and lots and lots and LOTS of different combinations work for it. "Justin Bailey" was just simply the first meaningful-looking combination found that resulted in suitless Samus.*** Interestingly enough, there actually IS a meaningful-looking code that's hard-wired into the game and not a result of the password calculations: "NARPAS SWORD" followed by blank spaces or zeroes[[note]]No, there's no Narpas Sword in the game. Due to how password components are spaced this is just how the game formats what should be "NAR PASSWORD." "NAR", depending on who you ask, stands for either '''N'''orth '''A'''merican '''R'''elease, '''N'''ot '''A''' '''R'''eal Password, or Tohru '''Nar'''ihito, who converted the game to cartridge format from the Famicom Disk System version, which used saves instead of passwords[[/note]].** There's also a rare case of an inversion in the original ''Metroid''. Many gaming mags and books back in the day referred to the statue room as a short-cut to Tourian, something akin to the Warp Zone in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''. They always make some off-hand reference to "the long way" to Tourian, but never explain what it is. The thing is that the statue room is not only the legitimate way to get to Tourian, it's the ONLY way. ** There's also the rumor that you can play as bikini-clad Samus in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', which persisted even ''after'' ''Nintendo Power'' issued a post-interview statement just near the end of SNES days that it was categorically untrue. This desire to play as suitless Samus in ''Super Metroid'' has let to various fan-hacks. A similar myth is associated with ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', where the scantily clad mode can supposedly be unlocked by a special button sequence.** ''Super Metroid'' has been the subject of many other false rumors, such as a hidden green Chozo statue and a secret area called "Warfair". Considering the [[SequenceBreaking insane things you CAN get away with]] in this game and its sequels, rumors of this sort are hard to quash. These two myths and some other old chestnuts are dealt with here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs/19122* ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife'': After paying 10,000 coins in the Wishing Well, one is given access to the Developer's Room. One character in which asks if you found the secret flower in the Villain's Lair which [[spoiler: brings the mayor back to life]]. He lies, this is fake.* Due to the [[HardModeFiller predictable structure]] of ''ChuckieEgg'' (a new gameplay twist every eighth level), combined with its [[NintendoHard extreme difficulty]], it's not really surprising that there are rumours about twists that don't actually appear in the game, most notably a series of levels with two Mother Ducks. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was indeed planned]], but never implemented.* ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon1998'', the original [=PlayStation=] game, came with an instruction booklet that had somewhere in the last few pages, an illustration of what was presumably an older Spyro. There were quite a few rumors about ways to obtain this form of Spyro in the actual game. They were all false, of course.** Especially since that dragon that was put in there was rescuable as one of the first dragons in the game.** There was an unreachable island in the background of the Midnight Mountain home level in ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon''. No matter what, it was impossible to glide or otherwise get to it, and you would lose lives in the process. Of course, rumors spread about what was on this island, such as another egg, or a secret level. Eventually, it was discovered through hacking that the island contained three life butterflies, and that was it. So much for wasting your childhood...** Interestingly, the island ''was'' originally supposed to contain a bonus round, at least according to the game artist. Unfortunately he was on vacation during the time the game was finalized, and it was ultimately moved to a different location. The island was never removed, however, and somebody managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v84tOqL0fd0 recreate the whirlwind that was initially supposed to take the player there.]]* There were a number of '''very''' persistent rumours about the voice cast for ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', most notably that Pit and Palutena would be played by Johnny Yong Bosch and Tara Strong. The rumour just ''would not die'' even after Johnny denied playing Pit at Otakon. Even after the anime shorts on Nintendo Video confirmed their true [=VAs=] (Antony Del Rio and Ali Hillis), some people ''continue'' to believe them and claimed that [[TheyJustDontGetIt they were replaced for the shorts]].* Up until 2009 with the release of ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'', an easy way for a troll to bait ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' fans was to say that they found an Insomniac Museum, a place with cut content and behind the scenes info, in a game that didn't have one. At that time, only two games had them, and benefit of the doubt was usually given since accessing them was based more on luck (using an otherwise inoperable teleporter late at night in a specific level). Typical instructions were usually to do something challenging like reaching the end of a bridge that gets destroyed in the first level you can never go back to. With ''A Crack in Time'', the museum is unlocked more predictably (beating an extra boss, or a pre-order bonus), and the claims mostly died out.* There are rumors going around that the name of the main character in the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' games was supposed to be "Monkey Kong" and the unusual name was the result of a mistranslation. Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto himself stated this is not true and the character got this name because the word "donkey" described his stubbornness. (Inevitably, among the dozens of clones of the original game was one titled ''Monkey Kong'' for the UsefulNotes/ColorComputer.)* ''VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc'' has the 2D Nightmare. To elaborate: the game has a bonus minigame section. You unlock all nine of these with your high score sum... unless you're playing the Nintendo [=GameCube=] version. In case of this one, there are 3 more minigames on the list, and some are unlocked by plugging in a [=GBA=] with the ''Rayman 3'' for it in, or by combination of high scores and plugging [=GBAs=] in. Except for the one that just stays locked. Some people connected it with 2D Nightmare mentioned in a gaming magazine, a counterpart to 2D Madness one that was relatively easy to unlock. After loads of internet arguments about its status somebody first made an emulator hack and then a cheat that allows you to play it (it was 2D Nightmare indeed). However, as for the moment of writing, legitimate unlock conditions (and their mere existence) are still rumor fuel.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puzzle Game]]* ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster 3'''s Shirase mode ends at level 1,300, assuming you've met the time requirements to be allowed to continue past levels 500 and 1,000. Allegedly, there exists levels beyond 1,300, but no one has been able to confirm this rumor. And the best part about this rumor? The source is none other than [[WordOfGod Ichiro Mihara]][[note]][[NamesTheSame No, not]] [[AngelicLayer that one]][[/note]], the producer of the TGM series.* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' was once rumored to have a fifth age called the "Thelastic Age", as well as a red button in the Selenetic Age maze, etc.** Of course the later ''realMyst'' remake (as well as the PSP release) did add a fifth age, Rime. Still no red button though.* ''realMyst'' is also rumored to have an as-yet-undiscovered Easter Egg which allows the player to carry a working gun around Myst Island. While there *is* an actual Easter Egg that gives the character a gun, it can't be fired.* For ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'', some cheat code sites say pressing ESC before [[spoiler: capturing the black cube entity]] will allow you to retain the black gun. This is a cheap trick to get you sent back to the starting chamber when you're about to win. You can turn your gun black this way, but it gives you no special abilities aside from leaving black cubes and when you restart the game your gun will be red again. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]* There's a widely-held belief floating around the Internet that ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' was originally meant to be a game based on the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, but BlizzardEntertainment couldn't secure the rights to it, so [[{{Expy}} they changed several of the names and themes]] and released the game as their own.** This rumor is probably based on the fact that ''VideoGame/WarcraftOrcsAndHumans'' [[http://kotaku.com/5929161/how-warcraft-was-almost-a-warhammer-game-and-how-that-saved-wow really was intended to be a Warhammer game]]. Of course, the reasons why that fell through show why the company wouldn't have bothered considering the same route when they later made ''Starcraft''.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Rhythm Game]]* There's one of these in the making with ''VideoGame/RockBand 2''. The game contains a "Game Modifiers" menu that serves the same purpose of the newer Guitar Hero games' "Cheats" menu but without actually calling them cheats. One of the modifiers is called "Awesomeness Detection", its description is simply "Lets Harmonix know that you are awesome!", and it has no apparent effect on gameplay. Speculation as to its purpose runs rampant--especially since, almost a year after ''Rock Band 2'''s release, Harmonix is still being cryptic about its true purpose and has offered little advice beyond that if you're a high-level player, you should definitely be playing with Awesomeness Detection on. The staff was also fond of claiming that lots of things happen when they play with it on, [[DontExplainTheJoke implying that the players just aren't awesome enough]].** One rumour is that Awesomeness Detection makes vocals different when you are online (warps the original singer's voice or something), but that's been proven false.* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'':** In a podcast by Harmonix, one of the game's senior designers announced that Awesomeness Detection does absolutely nothing.** ''Guitar Hero 5'' included live DLC from the RollingStones. Rumors immediately started that it was the recording from their infamous concert at Altamont, CA. It was actually from an earlier show in New York.** Rumours were circulating that Guitar Hero 7 would be announced at E3 in 2012. However, no such announcement was made, confirming the rumours as false. Later, plans for a scrapped ''[=GH7=]'' were revealed, which would return the series to being guitar-only, but would have had a totally different guitar controller (said controller was the reason for the game's cancellation, as it was too expensive to produce).[[/folder]]

[[folder:Role-Playing Game]]* Much of ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'''s popularity depended on one of these. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation According to the storyline]], the other characters are actively searching for the Runes at the same time you are. It was commonly believed that, if you're too slow, it's possible for someone to beat you to one of the Runes...however this only happens twice, with the Star Rune and Sky Rune, and no matter how fast you are you can't stop a randomly-selected character from stealing the Rune. ''Nintendo Power'' even mentioned it was possible to get to the Sky Rune before it was stolen in their review.* Thanks largely to a misprint in a strategy guide, it was a rumor for years that you could beat Balio and Sunder from ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' in their initial, HopelessBossFight occurrence. This did not seem so far fetched, as the reward promised was unremarkable at best, but it was proven years later that it was, indeed, impossible.* This page was [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes originally titled]] Schala Lives in reference to the uncertain fate of Schala in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' that led to constant insistence there was a relevant subquest in the game to find her again. The game's sequel ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' did eventually address this, albeit very strangely. The rumor is that the quest was, in the original game, unfinished at the time they had to start manufacturing the game, so it was left out completely... except for a couple of mistranslated lines which suggest that there is one last subquest to save her. This was eventually proved incorrect when early versions of the game were examined.** And like many games, ''Chrono Trigger'' is filled with doors that don't go anywhere or blocked by the dreaded InsurmountableWaistHighFence, but it's hard to tell a real explorable area from one that's just there for the heck of it. Spekkio's room in the End of Time in particular has a back gate that's purely decorative, but it hasn't stopped people from planting EpilepticTrees.** In the DS version, you could find Schala after completing a subquest, which was started after you began a NewGamePlus. [[spoiler:[[ForegoneConclusion You still couldn't save her though.]]]]** ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' has one of its own. Thanks to some erroneous text from a Brady Games guide, players were led to believe that the Wraith monster would sometimes drop the Ghetz' Shirt, an armor that increased several stats in exchange for giving the wearer several status ailments. * There are many rumors about getting "secret" {{Mons}} not listed in the Digimon chart of ''DigimonWorld'', particularly ones that are known to exist in the game but aren't normally available. For example, Metal Etemon and Gigadramon function more or less properly, as do their digivolution items, but there is ''no way to obtain them'' without the help of a cheating device. [[SchmuckBait Although the "hints" you can find around the Internet tell a different story.]]* ''VideoGame/DragonFable'': Legends abound about the mysterious locked door in Oaklore Keep. When a player tries to enter it, it simply says you must be Level 100 to enter. [[spoiler:Of course, the level cap is only 50. Players who used hacks to achieve Level 100 have reported that, as expected, the door really doesn't open.]] This hasn't stopped new players from posting theory threads on the forums constantly, though, thinking they've discovered something new.* From ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' we have the [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Jvk1166z.esp "jvk1166z.esp"]] FanFic/rumor. It's your typical video game creepypasta about a spooky mod which you really [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou shouldn't play]]. A supposedly legit copy of "jvk1166z.esp" turned up on the Bethesda mod forums and was uploaded to a modding site. It was very quickly debunked as a [[{{VideoGame/Fallout3}} Fallout 3]] hair mod (with multiplayer files from a StarWars game), one of the "proof" screenshots of the Assassin was found to be from another (legit) mod, and further discussion proved that making the mod as it was described [[http://www.fliggerty.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5543 was]] [[http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1435303-jv1166zesp-as-an-actual-mod/ impossible]].** If you believed the rumors, there were supposedly a number of ways to join [[BigBad Dagoth Ur]] in the game, all of which became debunked rather quickly. As it turns out, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen his Sixth House faction was to be joinable, but time constraints forced the developers to drop it as an option]]. There are still a few DummiedOut bits of this code in the game and a number of [[GameMod Game Mods]] have been created which make it an option.* Due to the inscriptions of the lids on the bug jars you find in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', there's been tons of fan speculation. Some of the theories include the Thalmor plotting the end of the world, mass genocide in cites that created a summoning circle, summoning Talos (depending on the theorist this is unrelated to the last one); there's even debate on what language the inscriptions are in! (Of course, the Thalmor ''are'' [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/forum-archives-michael-kirkbride plotting to end the world]], but it has nothing to do with the bug jars.)* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':** The makers of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' specifically and maliciously started a rumor that made its way into several [=FAQs=] and countless forum discussions, by having some [=NPCs=] claim that you would have gotten 100% completion if you did action X once the game is over.** Also in ''Fallout 2'', many rumors abounded regarding Sulik's sister and methods for actually finding her in game. Such was the frustration at not eventually rescuing her that some mods have placed her in the game. ''Van Buren'' had planned to tie up that dangling plot by including her with an explanatory backstory.** Numerous ''Fallout 2'' walkthroughs stated that a street boy Cody from New Reno would show you the crashed alien ship location like in ''Fallout 1'', and giving the Alien Blaster — a powerful beam weapon. With photoshopped screenshots. There is no such location, but Alien Blaster is available elsewhere. It is possible to talk to Cody and give him food, but he is '''very''' easy to scare off, making this rumor hard to disprove.** And the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' 'Barking Lasers' hoax, which was a patently labeled joke, took on a life of its own and spread netwide through fansites and Wikia. The origin was a two-frame animated gif which showed Dogmeat shooting lasers from his mouth, and this encouraged fans to expend hours of time and go to great lengths, up to and including killing Dogmeat, in an attempt to get him to use the Wazer Wifle.* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' had several:** The infamous [[http://goldensunwiki.net/Wheat_Sword Wheat Sword]]?** Hoax cheats to enable [[ChineseGirl Feizhi]] or [[CoolOldGuy Kraden]] as player characters. But most of all...** For several years, the most popular VideoGame/GoldenSun hoax was rumors of a third game in the series. And then in 2010, ''[[VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn it actually happened]]''. There was also a brief attempt at recreating the Wheat Sword joke for ''Dark Dawn''.* Electronic Gaming Monthly came out with an April Fool's joke about a ''KingdomHearts / SuperMarioBros'' crossover called ''[[http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc71/ultracoolman/mushroom-kingdom-hearts_mini.jpg Mushroom Kingdom Hearts]]''. Some people bought it, of course.** There was a comic named that by [[http://www.geocities.com/mushroomkingdomhearts/1-1.html Wil]], but it only has Nintendo (with ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'') mingling.** For a time, there were also rumors that in Kingdom Hearts II, one could unlock King Mickey as a summon by finishing Jiminy's Journal, returning to Disney Castle, and entering a newly-created door/portal in the area. In there, the player would have to clear the entire room of Heartless alongside King Mickey before he gives Sora the King's Charm, which could summon him. According to the myth, the King's Charm costs "four bar of Guard"(?). Interestingly enough, one version of this myth requires the player to beat the Lingering Sentiment to obtain it.* In ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'' there were rumors that after [[spoiler:Sandra's death]], if you gave [[GuideDangIt specific answers]] to Inspector Boyd, took the right Jumi party member, made an item called "Sandra's Core" through a tedious tempering process of Emerald to produce Alexandrite, and fought to the inaccessible (it's only seen in cutscenes) deepest level of the underworld, Sandra would return and become a playable character (with incredible stats and Syncro effect, of course!).* ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'' had a locked door in the final area rumored to be openable if all the Iris Treasures were obtained from the Ancient Cave. The woman who stores them for you hints that something may happen if they're all gathered, one of the Sinistrals is named Iris, and the Iris Treasures were ''extremely'' time-consuming to collect (one can only be obtained through a boss battle that's all but rigged, while the others are [[RandomlyDrops random drops]] in a 99-level dungeon). For years, gamers looked for an explanation beyond them just being {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s until the rumor was finally killed by WordOfGod...which didn't help, as realizing that one spent fifty hours of their life collecting useless artifacts for shits and giggles makes one want to climb a bell tower with a rifle.* ''VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue'' for the SegaCD had a weapon in the game manual called The Dark Scimitar that was not included in the final release of the game. Many fan communities went wild trying to find out where The Dark Scimitar was located (believing that if it was in the manual, it ''had'' to be hidden in the game somewhere). With many people claiming to have found it and making up ridiculous ways to do so (none of which worked), communities exploded when a fan finally did find a way to not only get The Dark Scimitar but many other unusual items through a glitch that's created when characters, specifically Lemina (the glitch is called the Lemina Bug for that reason) leave your party.* The "Indoctrination Theory", one of the largest fan movements borne out of the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' ending controversy, is now officially this (formerly it was just a Wild Mass Guess ). Basically a widespread belief that Commander Shepard had been indoctrinated by the Reapers at some point prior to the final encounter with the Illusive Man on the Citadel, and that the entire ending was a Reaper-led hallucination that Shepard could break out of, depending on the player's final choice. Various pieces of information and rumors were used to bolster this theory - datamining that showed a Shepard model present on the jungle homeworld seen in the final scene with Joker, extra images of locations that aren't present in the game, wisps of a black oil-like substance that appear at the corner of the screen during the TIM conversation, textures for ghostly trees that were apparently supposed to appear in the "Guardian's Garden" and more. Bioware officially denied any such theory and purged discussion of it from their main forum, but this hasn't stopped people from believing it will be resolved in a future DLC or game.* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'':** ''Might & Magic VI'' had its share of rumours, being the most successful of the series. There were rumours of a white goblin and an elaborate "flute quest" which originated from the fact that there was a flute quest item in the game, only it didn't do anything; probably a leftover from a removed quest.** The map for ''Might & Magic VII'' includes a frozen landmass to the northwest of the main continent named "Vori". Absolutely no mention of it is made in-game, and there is no way to travel there (which, of course, didn't stop some people from claiming that you could).* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' / ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'':** Back in the days before [=GameFAQs=], [=YouTube=], and others, there were NUMEROUS examples of these. Some were true, others weren't. One good example is the ''Mother'' trilogy, with numerous rumors that were both true and false. Two of them in particular surrounded the final boss of ''Mother 2'' aka ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', Giygas; if you had looked into the background at just the right time, you would see the image of a fetus in the black.** [[http://herbaldrink.deviantart.com/art/VGMythBusters-Giygas-67655728 Somebody on DeviantART]] in fact could've been a TropeNamer had it not already been named, since he actually shows an image of when you can see the Fetus in ''Mother 2''. He also confirms that when the game starts to become staticy near Giygas' defeat, you do NOT hear Giygas crying for help, as the SNES' sound technologies are unable to handle that. (even ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' and ''Videogame/StarOcean'' sound staticy and distorted). Part of why the story's survived for so long, other than the vagina/birth canal/whatever part of it corresponding with the biological background in the area where you fight Giygas, is that the final battle takes place in the past and Giygas's infancy and childhood are a big part of the first game's plot.** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' does not help this at all. Near the end of the game it's revealed that [[spoiler:the world of ''Videogame/EarthBound'' was destroyed, and you are living in a different world with all the survivors]]. Thus, another theory was created, claiming that since Giygas looked like a fetus, he was actually a baby then, and in defeating him as a baby, the heroes created a time paradox (since they wouldn't be in the past if they weren't fighting Giygas in the future) which destroyed the world. This theory completely ignores the fact that when he was an infant, Giygas was with Maria the whole time and didn't mutate into the NightmareFuel form until after he grew up. [[note]]There's an alternative theory which states that the time paradox was created by the heroes stopping Giygas's invasion in the future and thus never getting the CallToAdventure from Buzz Buzz, but that goes from Urban Legend of Zelda to WildMassGuessing territory.[[/note]]** Then there's the speculation regarding the reasons ''[=EarthBound=]'' never got rereleased [[NoExportForYou outside Japan]]; it eventually became widely accepted that the game would never be rereleased because of [[ScrewedByTheLawyers licensing issues regarding samples used in the in-game music]] coupled with Nintendo's unwillingness to alter the original game. However, when an American rerelease of the game eventually did happen on the WiiU Virtual Console, no edits were made to any of the music and there were no legal issues at all. Some people still apply this theory to ''Mother 3'' instead.* ''VideoGame/MysticArk'' was long held up as an actual sequel to ''The7thSaga'', rather than a mere SpiritualSuccessor... until someone finally started work on translating the game and discovered right off the bat that their stories are entirely unrelated.* In a case of a rumor coming true in a later revision of a game, players were finally allowed to legitimately reverse [[spoiler:Nei's death]] in the [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of ''PhantasyStarII''. It's [[GuideDangIt extremely hard and time-consuming]] to pull off, and it also requires [[OldSaveBonus a save file from the remake of PS1]].* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' had a few persistent rumors about alternate ending animations (based on the unused evil/neutral ending songs on the soundtrack), a proper romantic subplot with Fall-From-Grace (originally intended but removed for budget/time constraints), the ability to read Fall-From-Grace's diary, and an opportunity to have sex with Annah if you keep her invisible "morale" stat at maximum level at all times.** She comes onto you at one point, describing...er, in good detail the things she plans on doing to you. Any further dialogue choices will result in her backing off and claming she wasn't serious.* In ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', there was a rumor that both the Girl and the Sprite can receive another elemental since they only have seven each, and [[MissingSecret there are eight elemental slots]] (when you look at their magic descriptions). However this rumor can easily be dispelled by the fact that while each character only gets seven summons, there are eight ''total'' — only the Sprite gets dark magic, and only the girl gets Light. Naturally, the Girl has an empty space where dark magic would be; likewise the Sprite for light magic.* A popular claim on various cheat/FAQ sites is that in the first ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'', if you use an exploit to get outside the town of Guardiana (by forcing an NPC to move into the path of a guard blocking the exit from the town), continued on to the first battle at the Gate, and proceeded to clear it using only the player character/"Max", you would unlock something called "Shining Influence". It is never explained what this glitch would do, and some speculated that it would give an additional boost to the other party members for the rest of the game. It was later proven that no such item or glitch unlocked after completing the first battle solo - if anything, it's a major drawback because the player is subsequently unable to recruit the first four (normally mandatory) members who join you after speaking to the king for the first time.* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'''s [=GameFAQs=] board started a minor rumor about getting into Estelle's room. You can't, except in [[NoExportForYou the PS3 version]].* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the game's director Hidetaka Miyazaki encouraged this by implying that the pendant had some kind of special use. Some players tried everything; trying to drop it in front of bosses, locations, characters and bonfires, or seeing if it unlocked special dialogue or interactions with the game's covenants. He later revealed that he was just [[TrollingCreator playing a prank]] by leading people to pick a starting gift that does nothing at all.* For the longest time it was believed that ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' had a few lines of code to scare Save Scummers; supposedly, hitting the SNES reset button enough times would throw up a screen telling you to TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY (in Japanese). It wasn't until ''twenty odd years later'' that anyone had the courage to debunk it, when official translator Gideon Zhi declared the rumor false on Twitter.* For the original ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' on Super Nintendo (which never made it out of Japan), there was for a ''very'' long time a rumor that if you chose "wrong" in the LoveTriangle by marrying Nera instead of Bianca, various character would be hit by the DiabolusExMachina: Bianca's ill father would succumb to DeathByDespair, Bianca herself would be forced to eke out a living as an abused barmaid, Nera's UnluckyChildhoodFriend Crispin would be miserable, and that Nera was near-useless in battle on top of this. This myth went un-busted until September of 2014, when Dragon's Den, the largest English ''Dragon Quest'' fan site, tracked down video of a play-through where the player married Nera and none of this happened. Dragon's Den proceeded to trace the source of the rumor and found it originated as a [[DeadBabyComedy dark joke]] in one of the first online [=FAQs=] for the game, which predated even the first fan translation; since this FAQ was many Western players' first experience with ''DQV'', it was taken at face value and thus nobody married Nera to verify the claim.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shoot 'Em Up]]* ''VideoGame/StarControl II'' had an extremely persistent myth of a cloaking device for the main flagship. Despite WordOfGod that such a device was not in the final game, screenshots of it were actually printed on the back cover of the game, and it wasn't until the source was released that it was confirmed to be absent. Likewise for the secret code that made the Pkunk Fury ship immortal.** There was also the legendary Black Spathi Squadron, a splinter faction of the Spathi composed of brave warriors who fly Eluders painted jet black and fight bravely throughout the universe! They're not actually in the game, of course.*** A new player asking where to find the Androsynth is always a source of humour on the ''Ur-Quan Masters'' forum. [[spoiler:(You can't find them. Don't ask about the Androsynth. You make me [=*=]frumple[=*=].)]]* There were many theories back in the day that there was a way to shoot the dog in ''VideoGame/DuckHunt'' for the NES. One was that you had to get to Stage 99 to do it. Easily the most straightforward example of wish-fulfilment on this page, and a good chunk of ''Duck Hunt'' hacks let you do just that.** It's entirely possible in the arcade version, but only in the bonus round — if you accidentally shoot the dog, the bonus round immediately ends and the dog walks out in bandages and on crutches to admonish you to "SHOOT THE DUCKS, NOT ME!"* Older-than-NES example — ''VideoGame/SpyHunter''. There was an urban legend about there being a run-and-gun shooting level taking place in a graveyard. Completely bogus...although it may have led to the addition of the third-person shooter levels of the second PS2 game. There were also rumors of a flying level, which actually appeared in ''Super Spy Hunter'', although that was a DolledUpInstallment.* Every time a new ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' game is announced, the fans will say that [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Mima]] will be in it. Even if it makes no sense. Ditto Shinki...until ZUN trolled all the Shinki fans by giving Byakuren one of Shinki's most distinctive attacks.* The supposed BrownNote[=/=]SubliminalSeduction arcade game ''{{Polybius}}'' is ''itself'' an urban legend.* Back in the coin-op days, there were rumors surrounding the old ''VideoGame/MissileCommand'' game that the Pentagon kept track of high scorers, just in case.* When ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' was released, rumors were that you could get a triple ship. That wasn't true. You can in ''Galaga '88'', though.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Simulation Games]]* ''Magazine/AmigaPower'' claimed that ''VideoGame/ThemePark'' players could unlock--with enormous difficulty--a violent ''VideoGame/{{Syndicate}}'' crossover, creating an urban legend that wouldn't die. The magazine's writers have never admitted that "Sinister Theme Park" mode was a hoax--only that they were responsible for its creation, that the screenshots were doctored, and that "literally no one" has ever managed to trigger it. [[TrollingCreator But do keep trying, because Bullfrog precisely implemented their idea in later copies of the game!]]* One of the all-time classics is the Mirage ship in ''Frontier: VideoGame/{{Elite}} II''. They wound up chucking it into a secrets guide (complete with made-up specifications) and featured a Mirage II in the sequel ''First Encounters''.* ''{{Creatures}}'' is a virtual life game series involving cute aliens, and has a ridiculously large amount of [[http://creatureswiki.net/wiki/Category:Easter_Eggs actual easter eggs]]. When a person asked a very off-topic question in the Creatures help community, they got [[http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.games.creatures/browse_frm/thread/29083b4398053c12 an extremely sarcastic reply]]. The "Secret Adventure Mode" quickly became a fandom in-joke, confusing many newcomers to the games into thinking it actually exists.** The port of the first game as an expansion to the fourth game (conveniently titled ''Creatures 1 to Docking Station'', or ''[=C12DS=]'' for short) added an actual Secret Adventure Mode to the game along with a plethora of other easter eggs.* The creators of ''{{Neopets}}'' have somewhat double-crossed this Trope, similar to the example above. There's a myth of a place called Jelly World where everything, even the people, is made of jelly. But it's not a myth — [[http://www.neopets.com/jelly/index.phtml Jelly World is a real place]], yet not on any official map. Denizens of the site, however, like to aggravate others by insisting it doesn't exist, even when most of them know it does, following in the footsteps of the creators of the site, who originally denied its existence. [[spoiler:Of course, there isn't really a Jelly World.]]** However, If you're lucky enough to get the lab ray and zap your pets with it, [[spoiler:you can actually turn them into Jelly Neopets. Like Jelly World itself, they are claimed to be non-existent by the creators of Neopets]]. Some will obsess over the non-existence of these pets, and will try to get them. [[spoiler:In fact, one [[http://www.neopets.com/userlookup.phtml?user=pigfish99 user]] [[http://www.neopets.com/userlookup.phtml?user=jelly_pigfish has]] [[http://www.neopets.com/userlookup.phtml?user=pigfish33x3 gotten]] '''[[http://www.neopets.com/userlookup.phtml?user=twilightultima sixteen]]''' of these pets.]]*** Oddly, despite the obvious nonexistence of Jelly World, there's a word filter on the chat boards [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that turns "Jelly World" into the name of any one of the legitimate worlds]].** In the original ''Neoquest'' game there exists a door that's locked and has no apparent means of opening it. For years people tried various means of unlocking the door or obtaining the key, to no avail. To make it worse, the staff hasn't revealed whether it's actually possible to open the door.** The Neopets Team has a somewhat haphazard approach to how they build new features on the site, which can lead to confusion and WildMassGuessing. The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity, for example, was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a page with a discarded magical blue Grundo plushie]] and nothing else. The sticking part was the "prosperity" part, as it seemed to do absolutely nothing. Rumors abounded on how to make it pay off, from the standard blatant lies about achieving impossible conditions resulting in a reward of rare items to more placebo effect-driven claims that it increased the frequency of Random Events. The truth? TNT just hadn't had the chance to activate it yet. Years after it was programmed in, they added the option to talk to the plushie, which can result in various good or bad effects (which was just part of an overhaul of the world it resides in).** New players can get this from the veterans, as the Neopets world is rife with old, inactive features and locations left over from previous events.** There was also the infamous Bonju avatar (avatars being essentially the Neopets equivalent of "achievements", rewarding you with little icons for your user lookup/forum posts for completing specific tasks around the site), which had players puzzling for ''three years'' over how to unlock it, and was the subject of countless wild rumors. TNT finally caved in and revealed the [[GuideDangIt ridiculously obtuse]] solution in one of their editorials. [[spoiler:Mix a Blumaroo Steak, Gourmet Cooking for your Pet and Orange juice at the Mystery Island Cooking Pot - NOT Bonju's cooking pot. Oh, and you have to have the Mad About Orange avatar as your active at the time. Oh, and this ''only'' works during the month of August. Whew!]]* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'':** In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'', there was a shed with a door that could never be opened. On one forum, a lot of rumors spread about how to open the door and what you would get. In actuality, it was just a piece of leftover code that was blocked off rather than removed.** The numerous rumors that sprung up about acquiring those bloody (not literally) animals that hung around the valley, which all wore neckerchiefs like the one that the player's dog wore. Carter's and Flora's Chihuahua was especially popular. ** All those rumors for ''Harvest Moon: [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature Friends of Mineral Town]]'' and its female counterpart about how you could get your dog to have puppies. This one's likely due to the fact that you could do so in ''Back To Nature'', which ''Mineral Town'' is a remake of.** One that runs throughout the series — in the games where you can marry the Harvest Goddess, your child will possess farm-improving magical powers.** Leaving your dog in your greenhouse in ''[[VideoGame/{{Harvest Moon 64}} HM 64]], Back To Nature'' or ''Mineral Town'' will keep it from being destroyed by storms. Persists even after people have posted video proof that it doesn't work.** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonMagicalMelody'' has the "Rival marriage" system that was apparently left out of the international versions. The supposed "marriage pictures" are fanwork.** There are often characters who are well-liked, like priest Carter and Flora, and rumors pop up on how to marry them. They're not courtable.* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'':** In ''VideoGame/RuneFactoryFrontier'' there's a popular rumour that Raguna can marry his depressed neighbor Kross.** In ''VideoGame/RuneFactory 2'', there are two: One where there are methods to find the rumored ghost that haunts the clinic at night - never mind that Jake specifically tells you that he started that rumor as a joke. The other is a way to unlock a so-called "third generation", presumably with the child of Aaron/Aria and his/her [[ChildhoodMarriagePromise "betrothed"]]. Mentioning this on an HM forum is a good way to start a chain of mocking replies regarding the ridiculous things that will "unlock" the third generation (i.e. feeding Herman every recipe, even the stuff he hates or fighting Douglas, Gordon and/or Jake in a duel)* In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'', there tends to be a rumor (or an accusation) made that a certain male townsperson (specifically, a cat named Bob) wears a dress. According to some, this is a programming error  he's supposed to have normal "guy" clothing. However, this is false — Bob wears the same type of [[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal sacklike clothing]] both male and female cats wear. His "default" shirt pattern has flowers on it, but it's a flower shirt that is available to all characters (players included) and is worn indiscriminately regardless of gender.** Brutus is apparently a purple version of one of the dog townspeople in the game who will move in if you neglect your game for too long and has a house full of nothing fish that crashes after entering it. Everyone who claims to have seen him has either misplaced their cameras or had him...mysteriously disappear as they were getting ready to snap a photo.** And then there were the numerous other rumors of what Resetti does to you if you continue to reset long after he nearly has a stroke trying to hammer in "RESET THE GAME '''''NOT'''''!" into your head. Without going into the more gory or "colorful" outcomes that are blatantly false, one particular (and common) variant to this rumor is that if you reset over 60 times, Resetti will finally get fed up and dig like crazy underground, migrating all the neighbor's homes up a hill from below and causing all the neighbors to be mad at you for a week. The reality is, after a certain number of resets, the game simply recycles the last six conversations.** There was one rumor floating around for the GameCube version that if you opened your file everyday and talked to the same neighbor (again, everyday) for a straight year, you'd have the option to marry that neighbor. But alas...** ''Super Tortimer'' is a fake NES game Tortimer gives you as a prank. No matter what fans say there's no data to play it.* ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'' has many of these, including several alleged methods of getting twins and another cheat that supposedly will get Bella Goth back.** A small rumor claims that the urn of Vita Alto, a premade of Sims 3, can be found in a basement in Pleasantview in Sims 2, and she can therefore be revived. Of course, this was proven untrue both by the fact that none of the houses in Pleasantview ''even has'' basements, and because she cannot be found in Sim PE, which a deceased character would be able to be.* ''{{Nintendogs}}'' has had its fair share of these over the years. The most common ones are: That Nintendo created a "Nintencats" but either never released it because they believe a [[WhatAnIdiot cat game wouldn't sell]] or that it was a Japan-only game that [[NoExportForYou was too poorly received to be released anywhere else]]. The other rumor is that your dogs could breed - this is despite the fact they're puppies who can't be more than 3 - 5 months old.** [[HilariousInHindsight And now there's a "Nintendogs + Cats". Go figure.]]* In ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher 2,'' anything concerning ??? monster, especialy the Enemy monsters. To put it simply, the enemy monsters are a Boss monster that is unable to be unlocked for yourself, with the exception of Japanese game only White Mocchi. Doesn't stop thousands of rumors about them though.* There has been rumors of dead animals in [[VideoGame/ZooTycoon Zoo Tycoon 2]] turning into ghosts as an Easter egg. There are glitches that cause animals to turn transparent. However, people who believe the rumor claim that the glitch ghosts are not the same as the "real ghosts". Blue Fang has [[http://www.zooadmin.net/Smf/index.php?topic=1345.350 stated]] that any "ghosts" in the game are just glitches, although the rumor still continues.* New players to the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games are often enjoined to [[SnipeHunt go look for the UFO base]], a station that's supposedly the source of the {{flying saucer}}s you occasionally see flying around and sells every item and ship in the game dirt cheap. This started as an Urban Legend of Zelda, but at this point it's basically a RunningGag in the fanbase.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports Game]]* In the arcade versions of ''PunchOut'', rumors abounded that, should you build up a string of repeated victories over the final champ, you would be challenged by audience member VideoGame/DonkeyKong. If defeated, he would be knocked back into the audience. [[spoiler:Maybe that has something to do with why he's in the Wii game.]]* ''NBAJam'' had a myriad of rumors about additional secret characters with souped-up abilities. The most popular of these were Michael Jordan (who could dunk from the three-point line), {{Superman}} (who could dunk from halfcourt), Shaquille O'Neal (who couldn't be knocked down), and select characters from ''MortalKombat'' (which was planned for the console release but dropped). The next-gen remake has restarted the cycle.* ''WWFSmackdown2'' has Ken Shamrock and Big Show's names as part of screenshots on the back of the case. They were dummied out but still (very rarely) can appear randomly as 'Unknown' in a Royal Rumble or Slobberknocker match. Rumors persisted that you could unlock them, but it wasn't possible without a cheating device, and even then they lacked entrances (you have to turn entrances off to prevent the game from crashing when playing as them). What's more, most of their parts and moves can be unlocked to create them [[MissingSecret except for their heads]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stealth-Based Games]]* Rumors of secret weapons and characters for multiple completions of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' were widespread. Claims such as completing the game 50 times with Otacon and 50 with Meryl would garner you Raven's Vulcan Cannon were even mentioned in magazines such as ''Powerstation''.** Even more widespread were rumors of the possibility of replacing [[ReplacementScrappy Raiden]] with Solid Snake during the Big Shell in ''Metal Gear Solid 2''.*** This one became partially true with the release of ''[[UpdatedRerelease Substance]]'', where you can play as Snake on the Big Shell in a series of non-canonical scenarios (or go skateboarding on it). There's still no way to control Snake during the actual Big Shell Incident, however.** Also rumours of a FAMAS being available on the Tanker chapter; these were based on early trailers, and the weapon itself never showed up in the final game.*** Further fueled by the flashback footage showing Snake using the FAMAS against the guards on the Tanker.** Hard-working perverts have confirmed neither Johnny Sasaki in the first game or Raiden in the second game have any junk in their texture sets for any hypothetical action to uncover.* In ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}: The Dark Project'', there's an underground graveyard level called the Bonehoard. You have a rough map of this place, which insinuates the existence of an area called "The Alarus Extension", which players tried for ''years'' to find. Not only is the extension sealed off, but it doesn't even exist in the level! Additionally, ''Thief'' players love to spread the falsehood to newbies that within this non-existent area exists a Bow Upgrade, along with complicated instructions on how to get into the extension. It often takes the gullible neophytes hours, if not days, to realize they've been duped.** Many of the numerous fanmissions for the series like to make reference to one or the other, as well, either because the author thought it was funny or because s/he was deliberately messing with peoples' heads.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Survival Horror]]* In yet another case of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly''[='s=] seemingly endless April Fools jokes, the April 1998 issue of [=EGM2=] contained a method claiming to unlock ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' boss Akuma in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' as a secret character by finishing the game 12 times with an A rank using only the knife and the pistol, and entering the username as "AKUMA" on the computer terminal in William Birkin's lab. Images depicted a full 3D Akuma (probably ripped from the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'' games) throwing Hadokens at Zombies.** Around March or April 1999, ''Play'' magazine were very excited over the discovery of a hidden gate in ''Resident Evil 2'', opposite the police station. Speculation was that after going up to it you could find some way to go through it, find [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Rebecca Chambers]] fighting zombies, then play as her. Rebecca was likely a result of using a cheat cartridge or [[GameMod PC skin,]] you could find the gate but there was no way to go through it.** A rumor spread for a while of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' getting a special edition subtitled ''Final Hope'' which would have added a campaign for Claire Redfield and a port for the WiiU.* Many have claimed that the first ''SilentHill'' game has an "Ambulance Ending" in which Harry rampages through the town in an ambulance; a common piece of joke fanart is the so-called "lost" [=UFO=] ending for ''Silent Hill 4'' (which doesn't have one).** They mean [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WivDg4oAXM8 this]], a budget Japanese video game called ''Zombies vs. Ambulances''.** In the first ''Silent Hill'' you could allegedly "commit suicide" by nonstop running — running until Harry dies from a heart attack. Which is odd, considering ''James'' is the heavy wheezer.** This rumor often revolves around the bottle of distilled water in the alternate school. Supposedly, you can somehow use it build a bomb of some kind, which will allow you to blow open the [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence traffic gate]] in front of the Alchemilla hospital.*** Long ago, the RedHerring items in Midwich Elementary such as distilled water and glucose were also the source of rumors that Cybil Bennett was originally supposed to be a playable character in an alternate scenario, and that the items were for her to use.** There's an engine in the Shell station. Rumors say it can be installed in one of the cars.** The boat cabin wheel is also a subject of discussion; it doesn't do anything in-game, but Harry has dialog for it. Current opinion holds that it was [[DummiedOut part of a cut ending]] involving boat travel a la ''SilentHill2''.** Now there are claims that you can [[http://www.cheatmasters.com/new_cheats/2782/Silent_Hill_cheats.html save Lisa and get an "Excellent" ending]].** Rumor persists of Silent Hill 3's mysterious 'secret' level inside the hospital (which is impossible to get to because even with hacking, there is just a big empty building with no textures) on the PC version. There are mods out there that can 'make' the hospital but there is no official way.** Another rumor was Silent Hill Origins (Aka ZERO) where you can use the otherworld [[MagicMirror mirror trick]] to bypass the apartment level and head straight into the hotel. There is no normal way to do this even using the described trick because the apartment is ''necessary'' to trigger the events in the hotel.* In ''VideoGame/ClockTower: The First Fear'', the game features multiple endings, many of which are determined by whether or not each of Jennifer's friends are killed off during the game, bar a few exceptions, some varying on what Jennifer does in the last few screens, while others are determined by acts unrelated to the girls. Out of those endings, many players had speculated what would happen if Lotte survives, Anne ''and'' Laura survive, or all three girls live alongside Jennifer. Due to a mass number of glitches, it actually ''was'' possible to achieve these, ([[HesJustHiding or in the former's case, technically count this by chalking it up to "if I don't see it, it didn't happen"]]), but unlike the rumors which implied that all the girls can potentially be saved to earn the best ending possible, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the designers had partially anticipated this enough to automatically lead to ending F]] [[spoiler: normally, ending F, which involves Jennifer being killed in the elevator, is triggered if she had, at the very least, not witnessed either of Lotte's deaths. Note that it is also legally impossible without exploiting [[RandomNumberGod unpredictable]] [[GoodBadBugs glitches]] to have both Anne and Laura survive.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]]* Team17 are notorious for this. They mentioned in passing to magazine PC Zone that a mission pack was coming out for a ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' game (''Worms 2'') that would make worms babies and set missions at night. Then, of course, their most infamous claim, made on April 1st, was the [=**=]spaceman[=**=] cheat, which would supposedly summon a [=UFO=] in ''Worms 2''. Many people tried it before the official announcement at Noon that day that it was an April Fools joke.** Team17 had a bit of fun with this when they made an announcement regarding ''Worms 4: Mayhem'' on April 1, claiming that in this game you would be able to use the ninja rope to pull crate drops closer towards you. This turned out to be absolutely true.* ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has rumors from the [=GameFAQs=] board that there's a hidden job called the Barmaid. It says that if you dismiss all of your clan members and do the mission "Wanted: Barmaid", Luso will [[ThatCameOutWrong force himself into a Barmaid]].* There was a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' rumor that gained a bit of momentum but died with the internet - that evidently, you could recruit Olan into your party. Part of the reason this had momentum was because hackers discovered he actually didn't glitch the game out, implying that he ''might have'' been [[WhatCouldHaveBeen intended to join or return as a guest.]]* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' has the extremely persistent "Two Year Rule", the belief that developer Banpresto won't include an anime in their installments until two years after its conclusion, for various reasons (the most commonly cited being an attempt to avoid {{spoiler}}s). However, this can be disproven simply by checking the release dates: ''[[MacrossFrontier Macross Frontier: The False Songstress]]'' will be in ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2: Hakai-hen'' just over a year after it hit theaters, while ''GundamF91'' was in the original ''Super Robot Wars'' just over a month after its theatrical release. The truth is, if it takes a while for a series to appear, it's usually because the licensing rights aren't available for a couple of years.** Also previously, there has been an Urban Legend that Banpresto was sued by Winkysoft which caused the Masou Kishin characters in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' only appearing up to Alpha Gaiden, and only Masaki Andoh, Lune Zoldark and Shu Shirakawa appears in the [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration OG series]] for the Masou Kishin representative, and that there will not be any other Masou Kishin coverage for that... the last part was debunked when the Masou Kishin saga was included in the SRW OG Saga mini-series, and Banpresto revealed that Winkysoft never sued them but they just want a break from Masou Kishin. As of the inclusion of the rest of the Masou Kishin that appeared in the Classic Timeline during ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsEX'', they have appeared in ''2nd Original Generation''.* In ''TacticsOgre'', you were apparently able to recruit Lans Tartare, Balzepho, and Volac. However, battle data for Volac does not exist in the game, and as it turns out you can't make the three join you unless you hack them in, or any of the Dark Knights for that matter. Not to mention, saying those three are recruitable carries an implication that Balzepho would actually join forces with Haborym - which, given their history together, would end in disaster.** However, the remake actually ''does'' make one of the Dark Knights recruitable - Instead of one of those three, it's ''Ozma'', who has become an AscendedExtra.*** The fact that younger Lans Tartare was the incredibly [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic]] and [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic]] protagonist of [[GaidenGame his own game]] probably helped this along.* There are several from the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series, such as a rumour that [[DarkIsNotEvil Canas]] could upgrade to a Dark Druid (the class of the BigBad), due to the class appearing in the game's AttractMode, or that heavier weapons give more Weapon Exp. (They don't, heavy weapons tend to have higher wexp yields to compensate for the fact that [[MightyGlacier you won't be striking as often with them]]) A list of them, along with debunking evidence, can be found [[http://serenesforest.net/general/common-misconceptions/ here.]] Granted, some of the things that were ''actually'' DummiedOut of games in the series are [[http://serenesforest.net/general/unused-content/ almost as crazy as the rumours.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]* ''Yume Miru Kusuri'' features a NotBloodSiblings sister character who has a reasonable amount of romantic tension and interaction built up with the PC. This, coupled with a character in-game who [[LampshadeHanging talks about how these games]] ''[[LampshadeHanging love]]'' [[LampshadeHanging to have secret characters]] whose routes can only be unlocked after meeting some arbitrary goals in previous playthroughs, has a lot of players firmly convinced that a hidden route for said sister character ''must'' exist somewhere in the game. The more-believable rumor is that it was supposed to, but got [[MissingSecret cut during development]]* ''VisualNovel/{{Remember11}}'' is rumored to have a secret ending for Satoru[[spoiler:, perhaps due to the story arguably having [[NoEnding no ending at all]]]]. It doesn't help that the [[GuideDangIt flowchart]] ''[[TheComputerIsALyingBastard explicitly says]]'' that there ''is'' one.* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' was born from an April Fool's preview by ''Creator/{{Capcom}}. They teased screenshots of Phoenix Wright freely walking through crime scenes to investigate. The joke was taken seriously by fans, specially in Court Records, as the date this was published wasn't on April First, but rather in the week surrounding it. Due to the positive reaction of fans around it, Capcom actually made it for real.* The obscure (to English audiences) visual novel / adventure game ''Crystal Dragon'' is well-known in Japan for a supposed hidden strip rock-scissors-paper game option, which was made up by a gaming magazine to see who would copy their work.* Misha from ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' was never meant to have a route nor is there any sign of it in the game. [[spoiler:She was always written as [[IncompatibleOrientation gay and unobtainable]], and the only chance to have sex with her is pure FanDisservice and leads directly into a bad end]]. The rumor persists because she's a fan favorite. * There is a persistent rumour in the ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' fandom that there exists a book showing descriptions and art of unused executions. Popular, but largely false. While there does exist a list in one of the material collections of unused executions for the first game, no such list exists for the second, and the art and executions often sighted actually come from a doujin. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Wide-Open Sandbox]]* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series has enough of these that there exists [[http://gta-myths.wikia.com/wiki/GTA_Myths_Wiki an entire wiki]] devoted ''just'' to the myths, rumors, and urban legends that the games have spawned. Among the more famous ones:** In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', there were claims that there were ways to make the military submarine submerged off the north coast of the east island surface, up to and including talk of a secret ending where you could nuke the city.** ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' was the first game in the series to be hit with rumors on a large scale. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also the first game in the series to feature a [[DontGoInTheWoods widespread countryside]] to explore.*** One of the big ones was that there existed a Sasquatch (Bigfoot) character somewhere on the map, which was "proven" by some people with Photoshopped images. There's no Bigfoot in the game code. However, a Sasquatch not only ''did'' appear in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''[='s=] [[HalloweenEpisode Undead Nightmare]] DLC, but that game let you ''kill and skin him''. And the achievement you get for doing so? "Six Years In The Making". Undead Nightmare was released six years after ''San Andreas'', to the day. The final bonus mission in ''GTA V'' [[spoiler:also had Franklin being enlisted by a man who'd been looking for Sasquatch for nine years (the amount of time between the releases of ''San Andreas'' and ''V'') to help him hunt one. It turns out to be a guy in a Sasquatch suit, though.]]*** Another was that there were "ghost cars" that would spawn in some precise locations and drive around without a driver. These "ghost cars" were just abandoned, wrecked cars that the game spawned in hilly areas. Since new cars don't spawn with their parking brakes on, they'd sometimes just roll down the hills.*** There were also rumors about zombies being in the game, fueled by a rather mysterious corporate building in San Fierro.*** ''San Andreas'' also had a single mission where you fly to Liberty City and have a shootout in the Italian restaurant which features prominently in ''3''. There were an enormous number of rumors suggesting that there was a way to unlock all of Liberty City. Hackers figured out how to get there, either getting outside the mission area or returning later; a surprisingly large part of the city is actually present (about 70% of Portland), hovering in the air miles above northeast Los Santos, but is useless because the ground isn't solid except in the area used in the establishing shot.*** Many similar rumors abound, such as the existence of Film/{{Jaws}}[[note]]Sharks, along with other wildlife, would show up for real in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''[[/note]], the Loch Ness Monster, [[Franchise/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]], etc. Most of these have been officially refuted.** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has a whole bunch as well.*** Lola the prostitute was [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame featured on the PS3 box art]] and has a page on the police archives (accessible if you use the computer in the police vehicles), so there are rumors that she's in the game.*** One piece of fan rumor turned out to be correct. In ''IV'', you receive an achievement called "Impossible Trinity" after completing a mission in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After it was revealed that Johnny Klebitz (who appears in that mission) was the playable character for the first ExpansionPack, ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned The Lost & Damned]]'', players seized upon the achievement name and predicted that Luis Lopez (who also appears) would star in his own DLC. Sure enough, he was the protagonist of the second expansion, ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]''.*** There is also the "Ratman", which is similar to the ''San Andreas'' rumors about Bigfoot. Supposedly, there is a human-like creature that lives in the subways that attacks other [=NPCs=] and the player. It's faster than other [=NPCs=] and attacks by swiping at Niko, [[IAmAHumanitarian chewing on his corpse]] when it kills him. Extensive searches in-game and through the game's code have dismissed this claim, and any "proof" of the Ratman has been proven to be hoaxed.*** The abandoned Sprunk factory in [[{{Joisey}} Alderney]] is widely rumored to be haunted, thanks to a scream that some people claim to have heard when wandering through the factory (usually after firing off a round). More likely, it's just one of the bums that spawns inside.** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is home of the possibly biggest mystery of the franchise, nicknamed simply as the Mount Chiliad Mystery. It all begins with a simple mural on a wall of a shed having its place on Mount Chiliad, containing a crude drawing of supposedly a mountain, a saucer, a cracked egg, what looks like a person flying a jetpack, five red X's, weird lines inside that mountain, thunderbolts, and more. More so, after reaching 100% completion of the game, the player is able to trigger a total of three (four if counting a broken one underwater) ''actual'' saucers, all on different places hovering in the air with no real purpose.\\\\After uncovering the existence of these things, the Internet has since then gone crazy about this. What is the purpose of this mural, or of the saucers? Can the player unlock a flyable saucer, a jetpack, or something different? ''Is'' there actually a mystery, considering Rockstar never really confirmed it? Incredible theories and even valid finds have been popping up since then, like an actual alien egg inside the game files, weird green lights on bunkers, theories about a hidden karma meter inside the game, even more unreadable murals inside the game, and much, ''much'' more, even one year after the game's release, stating clearly that there isn't just a mystery inside the game, it is more like a game around the mystery. While it isn't clear if this mystery is solveable, Rockstar has been taunting players cryptically to "continue the search for the truth". The hunt is ongoing to this day, with many hunters trying out new and continuously more unusual theories to maybe solve this giant thing one day.** Another common rumor that there are aliens, [=UFO=]s, and other extraterrestial in the game, which are partly true, sort of. Two of the Truth's missions have some interesting content that may or may not be caused by aliens [[spoiler:One of them has you stealing some green goo from a heavily armored train, and another on a plane the enemies call you "carbon based life form"]]. A glitch in the game can cause the lights of planes to spawn, but not the plane itself, creating what technically is an unidentifiable flying objects in the sky.* The manual for ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'' made reference to rock hermits who lived on asteroids, enormous ships called Dredgers, generation ships, and the hidden planet Raxxla. These were added by the developers just for flavour text, but many players swore they had seen a Dredger just as they left hyperspace. One of these, hermit asteroids, were added to later versions of the game.* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has Herobrine, the supposed dead brother of the game's creator, known for creating strange objects and being elusive. WordOfGod has jossed the rumor, but the creators like to poke fun at it: almost every update has a line that says "removed Herobrine" or something similar. On top of this, in a multiplayer server, if a player is killed by an arrow shot from a dispenser, the message that displays the cause of death is said to be from Herobrine. Sometimes you may look into a mod of a game, or even a game itslf, and will find the log referencing to a Herobrine of sorts.** Which makes one realize that no matter what the Dev Team does, Herobrine keeps coming back.** Herobrine exists... as part of many of the over nine thousand mods made by the community.** Rendering spasms gives the impression that Herobrine's face appeared on the screen. It is awfully uncomfortable to witness that happen.** On 9 March 2012 at the GDC, Notch mentioned that "there is one [recipe] people haven't found yet.", this happening about a week after two unused textures for hieroglyphic-covered blocks mysteriously appeared in the texture file. This has sparked a huge number of rumours and speculation.* ''VideoGame/{{Blockland}}'' has "The Golden Brick" which supposedly exists in the Slate map, and, upon clicking it, you apparently unlock ''Blockland Adventure Mode''. It's untrue, but it's still thought to be ''[[RuleofCool such a cool idea]]'' that many players pretend that it's real [[RuleOfFun just for fun]].** There's also the Renderman, an apparition not unlike Herobrine from ''Minecraft''. It's supposed to appear when you take a screenshot on a [[DarkIsEvil dark map]], and in DOF screenshots(basically screenshots taken while your character shakes violently, to produce a very blurry image) he appears ''very close to the player''. Many pictures have been provided of him to 'prove' his existence. He was revived in the [[HolidayMode Halloween Update]], where a 'new form' of Renderman appeared: Preppers. Flashing red ASCII Terror Faces which randomly appeared on dark maps. Combined with the usual presence of NothingIsScarier in dark maps, many did not want to load these maps for fear of encountering [[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed HIM]].* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' seems to be becoming a fairly recent example of this. Even before the game's release, the developers touted information that you could unlock a new character and secret mission if you had met certain criteria and found a hidden severed leg. A few weeks after the game's release, a member of the GameFAQs community found the leg, and was disappointed to find that nothing happens. The developers even acknowledged that people had found the severed leg, but they refused to give further information. Rumors now focus on things such as all the crazy things you have to do to get the leg to work, and some believe that there's another leg out there and that this leg is just a red herring.[[/folder]]

!! Examples from other media:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* There's a rumor in the ''Manga/LuckyStar'' fandom that in a manga omake, WordOfGod confirmed that Kagami had a one-sided crush on Konata (which of course is prime fuel for the shippers). Except...that this omake doesn't exist, but of course the shippers love to propagate the rumor without ever checking for a source. (The lack of scans online beyond the beginning of Volume 2 contributes to this.)* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Prince Uranus refers to a [[http://wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Prince_Uranus fan-created rumor]] (from the long-defunct fan site "Save our Sailors") that was stated to have come from an unnamed Japanese magazine's article interviewing Creator/NaokoTakeuchi, who supposedly explained that Sailor Neptune's and Sailor Uranus's lesbian relationship was in fact that of Sailor Neptune and Prince Uranus, who had died and was reborn a girl (as his sister's powers had passed on to him, causing him to be reborn as her). Needless to say, Sailor Moon fans were ''not'' amused, and the site that the rumor came from later quietly removed it.* There is a popular and persistent rumor about the finale of ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' that stated that the whole series was AllJustADream, ending with Tsubasa waking up in a hospital, where we find out he was run over by a truck during the first episode and that his legs were amputated since the accident. While many people have stated that they "saw" the episode, this is in fact, false, since there is nothing to prove it as real (besides a bad photoshopped picture of Tsubasa in a hospital bed): there were three anime adaptations of the manga (the last one being ''Road to 2002''), and its creator has been working in several sequels and spin-offs since the last anime was released in earlier 2000s.* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' fandom has the still-persistent belief that Renamon was [[ShesAManInJapan male in the original Japanese]]. It doesn't help that at least one foreign version has Renamon as a male character.** Additionally, a persistent rumor held that, in the Japanese version of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure Piedmon's Last Jest]], Takeru and Hikari kiss, a scene that was supposedly censored out for the English version.** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' has had at least a couple of long-standing rumors about its DistantFinale; one involves an interview where someone who worked on the show said that TK/Kari and Izzy/Mimi were going to be two of the couples along with the canon Ken/Yolei and Matt/Sora. Another one, commonly perpetuated by [[FanPreferredCouple Tai/Sora]] fans, is that Sora and Matt were divorced. So far, there is no evidence that either rumor is true.* Franchise/DragonBall '''AF'''. It was a rumor started after GT ended and still hasn't died. It was supposed to be a continuation of the story after Anime/DragonBallGT, where Goku supposedly goes [[UpToEleven Super Saiyan 5]]. It went downhill after that. [[PoisonOakEpilepticTrees Fan Theories cracked]], every character reached [[SerialEscalation another level of Super Saiyan 6, 7...50]]. However, AF simply does not exist. Even the name is a mystery. The ones who want to believe it exists say it's "'''A'''fter '''F'''uture", the ones who don't believe it, [[FunWithAcronyms say]] it's "'''A'''pril's '''F'''ool".** A doujinshi was created out of this theory by Toyble, which just made things worse as the art was really good, and resembled Toriyama's. Fans believed it to be official.*** The Daizenshu website also played with this theory, which again, just made things worse.** And now, there's Dragon Ball '''Hoshi''', which just like AF doesn't exist. Yet trailers exist around the net, mostly scenes from Franchise/DragonBall videogame openings, and movies unreleased outside Japan. * In the ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanbase you'll sometimes hear the rumor that Winry's name was meant to be "Wendy" but wasn't spelled correctly. Similarly "Riza" was intended as "Liza" or "Lisa".** Despite many fans swearing it's canon nowhere does it say Envy's real name in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003]] is "[[spoiler:William Elric]]" and that he died at age 18 of mercury poisoning. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Collectible Card Games]]* Supposedly, Konami and Upper Deck Entertainment has created several ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' cards that have never been released to the public, only allowing them to be played by R&D employees at Upper Deck in specialized "Duel the Master" matches at tournaments. These include the Seal of Orichalcos, Power Balance, and alternate versions of the Egyptian God Cards. Since the only "proof" of these cards existing are proxies, there's no way of knowing if this is actually true.** The anime gave this a nod very early on, establishing that Pegasus' Toon monsters were one-of-a-kind cards that were never released to the public due to them being "too powerful". During the last parts of the KC Grand Prix arc, it's revealed that Pegasus' company routinely gives away copies of unsanctioned cards as prizes (a habit that the actual card game recently took up).** This has been proven to be true, at least for [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seal_of_Orichalcos the Seal of Orichalcos]]. As for the Egyptian God cards, alternate, tournament-legal "effect" versions have been released for [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Obelisk_the_Tormentor Obelisk the Tormentor]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Winged_Dragon_of_Ra the Winged Dragon of Ra]].*** [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Slifer_The_Sky_Dragon Slifer the Sky Dragon]] has now gained a tournament-legal release, which has prompted the creation of the long time anime-only [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Creator_God_of_Light,_Horakhty The Creator God of Light, Horakhty]] as an actual card. It even has its own type, "Creator God". The Seal of Orichalcos too has been released legally, though obviously with a very different effect to that of the anime or the Duel the Master version. No word on Power Balance though.** Prior to the official release of Primal Origin, there were sources depicting "Starduston" as a fake "Duston" version of "Stardust Dragon". It also had a effect highly reminiscent of "Stardust Dragon": During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. You can only control 1 face-up "Starduston".* In the early days of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', when cardlists were not available and the first ''big'' expansion set (Legends) was coming out, a rumor was started among the then-nascent Internet about the card "Throat Wolf", a creature which supposedly had "firstest strike". It also was rumored to have the ability to attack on your opponent's turn. Usually guides on how to get the super rare card mentioned other non-existent cards, like the Clockwork Doppelganger.** Of course, spoofed in the parody set Unhinged, which actually has a secret card that ''only exists in foil'' and is not listed in most spoilers. It's "[[http://magiccards.info/uh/en/141.html Super Secret Tech]]", and its collector number is 141 out of 140.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]* There is a persistent rumor that the final strip of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' has Calvin being on medication and no longer wanting to play with Hobbes, who turns back into a soft toy. The strip widely circulated online is a parody created by someone to make an anti-medication point, though the actual artist is unknown. The actual final strip adopted an AndTheAdventureContinues perspective. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* A prank on Website/{{Tumblr}} has started a rumor that the snake Literature/HarryPotter frees in the zoo is Nagini, Voldemort's pet snake. From the looks of things, ''thousands'' of gullible fans have reblogged the quote.** There's also a ''very'' highly reblogged post that appeared around the time the last movie premiered about the child actor playing [[DeadGuyJunior Albus]] [[FailOSuckyname Severus]] was the same one who played baby Harry in the first movie, despite the fact that a quick IMDB check shows that the first baby Harry was actually played by a set of triplets. Also, bonus points for using a picture of baby Harry from Deathly Hallows instead of the baby Harry from Sorcerer's Stone.* There are a few stories going around about bits and pieces of the RockyHorrorPictureShow. When online fans in the pre-DVD days bragged that their theater's print of the film had the UK-exclusive song "Super Heroes" intact, one fan attempted to top them by claiming that his theater had an otherwise lost scene in which Riff and Brad engaged in anal sex. This became a long (LONG) running in-joke among the Rocky community, with two fans actually writing and filming an intentionally blurry version of the scene for the 2001 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood' convention. Currently, the scene circulates in a fan-created 'extended edition' in the film, strictly for the sake of keeping the legend alive, though it should never be considered canon.* There are a lot of people who claim that ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' had two different endings for the American and Japanese releases, one where King Kong wins and one where Godzilla wins respectively. While there are differences between the two versions, the endings are the same and WordOfGod says that King Kong was always the intended victor. The rumor may have started because the Japanese version has King Kong's and Godzilla's roars played at the end, while the American version only had Kong's. ** There is also a common rumor about the German release of ''Film/GodzillaVsMegalon'', namely that the dub claimed that Jet Jaguar was Film/KingKong wearing a robot suit -- likely started by Creator/JamesRolfe's ''Godzillathon'' movie reviews. While it is true that some European releases of these movies had very wacky names, and in Germany, Jet Jaguar ''was'' really called King Kong, it was just a case of DubNameChange, and the character was never stated to be anything other than a human-built robot. For the record, Mechagodzilla was also renamed to King Kong in Germany, and this was, again, a simple name-change.* [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] not being in ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' had nothing to do with Nintendo asking too much money for a cameo. He's not in it because the writers didn't know how to properly incorporate him, though he is mentioned. It's been confirmed he'll appear in the sequel.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has a few:** The "missing sixth episode" of "[[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons}} The Daemons]]", set off by an April Fool's prank in a fanzine. The somewhat abrupt and ill-explained ending of the story, combined with its unusual length of five episodes, led to a fan rumour that it was made as a six-part story and then had the last two episodes roughly combined into one. This had happened a couple of times earlier in the show, with "Planet of Giants", and "The Dominators", but "The Daemons" was written as broadcast.** 1960s ''Doctor Who'' in colour. Various rumours have circulated about parts or all of episodes of Hartnell and Troughton stories being made in colour as unbroadcast technical experiments. This never happened. The probable source of the rumour lies with unofficial colour films of location shooting for a couple of sixties stories, which were made by crew members or fans.** But the most notorious urban legends in ''Doctor Who'' fandom surround {{Missing Episode}}s, with wild tales of evil collectors or secret circles of {{Big Name Fan}}s who own copies of missing episodes and are refusing to release them to the wider public.*** In November 2013, tabloids the Daily Mail and the Mirror reported as news that a copy of the seven episodes of ''Marco Polo'', the earliest missing serial (and one of only three to have no existing footage whatsoever) had been found, recorded by a handheld video camera pointed at the TV screen. This was presumably a Chinese whisper based on the fact that many brief clips of footage have survived via this method--but certainly not any full episodes.*** Ever since the rediscovery of "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear", the fandom has been plagued by the "omnirumour", which, promoted by some well-known American geek news sites, alleges that most or all of the 1960s Missing Episodes have actually been found, but that it's been kept secret because the people in possession of them want more money and/or because the BBC wants to keep a guaranteed home video income stream by "finding" them gradually over the next few decades.* When Season 2 of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' came out, the remaining "[[FanNickname Zyu 2]]" Zord battles Series/SuperSentai creator Toei Entertainment had created specifically for MMPR, were either edited to have the villains battle the mechs from ''Series/GoseiSentaiDairanger'' instead, or unused altogether. For years, rumors persisted that one of latter cases, Bloom of Doom, had Lokar, the Power Rangers counterpart of the ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' BigBad Dai Satan appear during her Zord battle. In February 2014, MMPR director/stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt released some of the unused Zyu 2 footage, including the Bloom of Doom Zord battle, in which Lokar does not appear.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinball]]* The operator's manual for ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' refers to a "secret video mode", which is believed to be a version of ''VideoGame/{{Breakout}}''. The exact requirement for invoking it is unknown, however, and it's unclear if it was disabled in the final release. Even so, many pinball players keep spreading rumors of the exact sequence of actions needed to activate it.* A rumor persists that setting the DIP switches for Creator/{{Gottlieb}}'s ''Pinball/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' pinball to a certain combination will cause the game to play the theme music from [[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 the Sixties animated series]] during the attract mode.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]* There is a [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Misconceptions_and_urban_legends_about_Transformers number]] of these surrounding ''{{Transformers}}'' figures. Such as the rumor that there was that there was a "giant-sized" Optimus Prime figure released during the original G1 run (which was actually a Korean bootleg) and that a G1 figure or prototype was made for Unicron (which was sort of an odd combination of a misinterpretation of an OrsonWelles quote and jealous children pretending to have a toy bigger than a rival's Metroplex).** A G1 toy prototype Unicron does exist, and was first publicly unveiled at the [=BotCon '96=] fan convention. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:G1toy-UnicronprotoHasbro.jpg It resembled nothing more than a blue basketball on legs,]] and was decidedly unimpressive.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* A rumor was started for ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' about a deleted character named "Flower" who allegedly sent herself to Hell to let Kenny be freed in the end. While some fan wikis still circulate it and believed it to be true, it was actually based off of a FAKE "deleted scene" theory made by a fan [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050207225855/http://fruitbowl.spcomplete.com/Spy.html to "fill in the gap" of how Kenny could wind up in Heaven at the end of the film]]. The same fan site had come up with [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050204225318/http://fruitbowl.spcomplete.com/solved.html other]] [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050204222612/http://fruitbowl.spcomplete.com/Consp.html similar wild fanon theories]] to explain the presence of commonly reused background characters in both the series and film. In the end, it could be best summarized as someone's Wild Mass Guess that was taken a little too seriously by portions of the fanbase.* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', there's an in-universe example. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, there's the fourth-wall breaking character in ''Hero's Duty'', King Candy in ''Sugar Rush'', the secret bonus level in ''Fix-It Felix'', the Turbo glitch in ''Road Blasters'', and possibly more, if Turbo messed with any other games before he came to ''Sugar Rush''.]]* The 1980s ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'' TV cartoon series is subject to a famous urban legend to the effect that the final episode (often reportedly never broadcast, although some people have claimed to have seen it on TV) revealed that the characters were actually [[DeadAllAlong killed in a roller-coaster accident]] and that the setting was Hell. The writer of the actual unmade GrandFinale, Michael Reeves, has denied this and placed his script for the episode online to prove it. (His script ends with the kids considering after being offered a [[AmbiguousEnding choice]] whether to go back to Earth or [[IChooseToStay continue]] fighting evil in the D&D world.)* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' has one involving a MissingEpisode known as "Special Ed," formed by an apparent hack on the creator's own website and editing an interview to add it. To this date there is still no more information known about this episode other than its title and it being removed for being "too real," and it still isn't fully confirmed nor denied if that was a hack or Danny Antonucci's actual words.* For a while, there were a couple of people spreading news of a ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' movie called "''Powerful Alliances''" that was to come out in '15, creating a Wikipedia article and [=IMDb=] entry for it, and spreading bogus rumors on other sites. It was basically a bunch of fans trying to pass off their "dream ''TF'' movie" as real. Although everything about it screamed fake, especially the amazingly fanwank-y cast list, not to mention that the supposed voice actors themselves said they haven't heard of such a project, the rumor became very persistent. After the Wiki and [=IMDb=] pages have been deleted, another rumor started, claiming that it's been canceled, instead of not being real in the first place.* There's a rumor amongst ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' fans that Courtney was meant to confess to Ginger that she loves her near the end. Ginger doesn't feel the same and softly turns her down, letting Courtney move on with her life accepting she's gay. It's said Nick [[HideYourLesbians refused]] the plot and they replaced it with the final ending. Alas no one seems to have any concrete proof to where this rumor originates.[[/folder]]

''Those lines. What are those lines on the left there? Must be some way to use them to access the secret TV Tropes bonus level.''----[[spoiler:Ah, good, you found it. Now, figure out the secret code behind TV Tropes and you'll be able to tropify every webpage in the world. Here's a clue — T42-V86-454-559-T68-R24-450-O28-592-42P-28E-4S3...the decoder is in the source.]]%% To find the decoder, bring the Wheat Sword and Triforce to the Dam Island and give them to Lola.----